I Guess You had to be There
by TweenisodeOrange
Summary: She was having one of those days. Seeing a friend attacked by a monster didn't help. Can she find out what the monster is and help the Nicktoons, even if they don't want it? Rated K plus for Intense Action Sequences. SB, FOP, DP, JN, L-T, MLTR, ATLA
1. It was just one of those days

**Author's Note: It's funny that I'm posting this in the middle of winter, considering it's set in the summer. Hey, that's when I started writing it! Yep, I've had this one under the belt for a while now. This and the next chapter are short, but then it gets long, so I hope you enjoy my story. (1st Person, but not necisarily true)  
**

**1: It was just one of those days…**

I was having one of those days. You know, one of those days when everything seems to go wrong? Spilling toothpaste on my shirt a few seconds before I have to be out the door, getting stuck in a boring baking class, finding out that class was canceled for today, and my parents can't come to pick me up for another hour? That kind of day.

It was just me, my sister, and the school custodian at the high school that afternoon. I was passing the time by playing with the video recorder in my brand-new, first ever cell phone. Then… well, maybe the video will explain it better.

_A short girl with long dark hair is smiling into the camera. The view turns to show an old man pushing some trash bins out the school door._

"_Say 'Hi' Mr. Mason!" the voice of who ever is recording shouts to him. Mr. Mason turns, smiles, and waves. The dark haired girl waves back. Mr. Mason walks out the door._

"_Hey sis, let me have a turn!" The dark haired girl says. The view turns again, showing a tall girl with shoulder-length blonde hair and a face dotted with freckles._

"_You getting my good side?" The tall girl asks jokingly. She then checks her watch and frowns. "I hope dad gets here soon, we're gonna miss the rest of that El Tigre marathon."_

"_I think we might have been watching too much El Tigre this morning, the theme song's stuck in my head!" The dark haired girl says from behind the camera. "Besides, you're too old to watch cartoons, you're 16 now, remember?"_

"_Yeah, so, you're 14." The tall girl retorts._

_A faint yelling come from outside. The tall girl turns her head._

"_Is that Mr. Mason yelling?" She wonders. The view of the camera changes again as the tall girl takes the phone from the dark haired girl and runs to the door. Through the door window you can see Mr. Mason lying on the ground a though he was pushed down there. Before she goes out, she runs into the cooking room where their class was supposed to have been held, and grabs a large knife out of a drawer. She then runs out into the back parking lot._

_The view turns again and shows a dark shape running into the shadows. The light is steadily getting darker, as if dark clouds are gathering._

"_Whoa." The tall girl breathes. She runs over to Mr. Mason to make sure he's ok. "Still breathing, vital signs ok." Her voice came through, but she put the phone down so you can't see her. She picks the phone up to dial 911, when another shape flits across the screen; this one is shaped like a boy, but also a tiger._

"_Ok, definitely been watching too much El Tigre." The girl says. She puts the phone down, but the camera lens is facing toward where the girl is running to, knife still in hand._

_Another figure comes down from the sky, this one the shape of a teenaged boy, and you can tell he has white hair. This figure and the boy/tiger attack a dark shape that had just come out from behind a dumpster. It looks similar to what ran into the shadows after she entered the parking lot._

_The dark shape stays still long enough for the camera to pick up that the dark shape is actually a large black furry monster that stood on two legs, but had large three-clawed hands and feet. It also had huge red eyes. _(If you've read the comic books called _Bone_, think 'rat creature')_ The teen with white hair sends a ray of green energy at the monster, while the boy/tiger grows sharp claws out of his hands and slashes at it._

"_I can't believe it!" The tall girl can barely be heard, she is standing so far away now. "I'm seeing El Tigre and Danny Phantom doing battle with a giant furry monster!"_

_Now two more monsters can be seen through the camera, but neither the girl, nor the two heroes fighting the first monster notice. One of the monsters jumps at the girl with a snarl. The girl screams and holds the knife up in front of her for protection. The knife goes through the monster, which yelps and dissolves into black smoke._

_The two fighting the first monster look over to see the girl and the remaining monster. The taller white haired boy points to the monster and continues to take down the first one, while the boy/tiger runs over to help the girl. The girl stabs at the monster with the knife, and the boy/tiger slashes it with his claws, and this monster also dissolves into a black smoke._

_The taller boy with the white hair walks over to the other two, his own monster defeated, and looks at the girl. She is breathing heavily, and looks at the two boys before asking…_

"_What are you doing here?"_

_Memory full, recording stopped__._

Oops, I forgot about that! But there is more you have to know. I'm the tall girl with the blonde hair and freckles, and something my phone didn't pick up, because they were far away the whole time, is that even though they were in the real world, they still looked like cartoons. If you've ever seen the movie _Who Framed Rodger Rabbit_ I guess that's sort of what it was like. It's hard to explain. Oh, and there's more that happens after the recording, I guess I'll have to tell you by word of mouth. Uh, let's see, where to start? Hmm…


	2. Ok, I'm Loosing My Mind

**Author's Note: This is my first post for the newyear. Not that any of you care. I'm just eager to post SOMETHING, and this is all I have finnished right now, so here you are.**

**2: OK, I'm loosing my mind...**

Ok, I know how to tell you what happened, I'll just pick up where the video recording left off.

"What are you doing here?" I asked El Tigre and Danny Phantom after I got my breath back. Fighting a monster that just almost killed you is tiring. And scary, I've never been more scared in my life!

" 'What are you doing here?' ?" Danny Phantom asked, "Not 'Who are you?' ?"

"Well, I know who you are! You may find this hard to believe, but here, in this world, you're both stars of your own TV shows, and…"

"We know that part!" El Tigre interrupted, "That's just what everyone has asked us since we got here."

"Since you got here?" I asked, "How long have been here? And how many people have you run into?"

"In that order: about an hour, three." Danny told me.

"Hmm, must have been some old people, or someone without kids." I said to myself. Then I turned to face the two cartoons-brought-to-life. "What are you doing here though? You didn't answer me the first time!"

"You saw those monsters, right? Well, they come from the Nicktoon Universal Plane, and it got out into the real world, so we had to come out and get it before it wreaked havoc out here." Danny explained.

"How'd it get out?" I asked. What can I say; I'm that kind of person. I always want to know how things work.

Danny and Tigre looked at each other and then at me.

"How much do you actually watch our shows?" Tigre asked me, "You expect _us_ to know that?"

"I was just wondering! And I do to watch your shows, I can prove it!" I looked at Danny, "Your real name is Danny Fenton." I looked at Tigre, "Your real name is Manny Rivera…"

"Pch, everyone in Miracle City knows that!" Manny said.

"And you wear ZebraDonkey underwear!" I retorted.

"Aiee!" Manny shouted, and Danny started laughing hard, "You must never tell anyone! Ever!"

"Dude, if she found out from TV, I'm pretty sure a lot of people already know!" Danny laughed.

"Don't worry Manny, I won't tell anyone else in the cartoon world." I reassured him.

Danny stopped laughing. "What!? Who said we were taking you with us to the cartoon world?"

"Oh, so I help you two beat the extra-dimensional monsters and then you just leave me here?"

"Hey, _we_ saved _you_!" Manny shot back.

"Really?" I asked, "'Cause if I remember right, I took out the first one, and I helped you take out the second one, I'm sure I could have pulled it off on my own."

"And the third one?" Danny asked.

I was quiet for a second. "If it weren't for me, the other two would have jumped you guys." I pointed out.

Danny pulled Manny out of my hearing and they had a short discussion in whispers. I couldn't hear what they were saying, but I _hoped_ they were deciding that maybe I would actually be able to help them.

"Alright." Manny finally said to me, "You can come with us. But first…" Oh great, a catch, "… We have to do something about that old guy lying over there."

"_**Oh my heck, Mr. Mason!**_" I ran over to him as fast as I could, I couldn't believe I'd forgotten about him! Well, I hadn't really forgotten, my mind had just been completely thrown off by the fact that I was talking to characters from two of my favorite cartoons. "Mr. Mason, Mr. Mason, are you ok?" I was almost crying.

Mr. Mason's eyes fluttered open and he groaned. "I'm alright, doesn't feel like anything's broken, or bleeding. What a miracle!"

"I need to get him inside!" I told the two heroes, and with that I picked up my phone (Had I really left the video recorder on through that whole thing? And now the memory was full, great) and helped Mr. Mason stand up and let him lean on me as we walked back to the school.

"I was taking the trash bins out to the dumpsters to empty them out, and something big and black jumped out at me, threw me almost eight feet!" Mr. Mason told me as I opened the school door. I'd guessed as much, but he didn't know that while he was out I'd turned one of those 'Big and black' things into smoke.

"What happened!?" My sister asked me as I walked into the school foyer.

"He was attacked." I told her right after I finished talking to the 9-1-1 dispatcher. "And not just by a person. Something weird is going on, (_either that or I'm loosing my mind_) and I'm going to get to the bottom of it. If I'm not back in… about an hour, then watch the newest clip on my phone." I handed it to her.

"Wait! What's going on?" she called after me, but I was already halfway out the door.

I ran out the door to find Danny and Manny, but they weren't there. Instead there was a swirl-y pink inter-dimensional portal, and it was getting smaller by the second.

"Oh no." I ran toward the portal, "Oh no, Oh no, ohno ohno ohnoohnoohno!!" I got my hand in just before it closed, and it sucked me in like a vacuum! It's a weird sensation to be sucked into a portal, especially one that's just closing. It's also a rough ride, I felt like a motorboat was dragging me along by a rope. In fact, it was so bad, after a few seconds I blacked out.


	3. I Can be a Spaz Sometimes

**Author's Note: Much longer chapter. Have fun reading it, for the few of you who have found it. **

**3: I Can be a Spaz Sometimes  
**

I was aware that I was in my bed, still half asleep.

_Aw man, it was just a dream!_ I thought, my eyes still closed. I don't like to get up in the morning, but who does? _I don't remember all of it, but it was really scary, but also cool. Something to do with Danny Phantom and El Tigre… _

There was a light shining into my eyes, making it impossible for me to get back to sleep. _Oh well, might as well get up. _I opened my eyes.

_Whoa! This isn't my room._

And there was no doubt about that! Instead of my room, I was in a tent! _I'm probably still dreaming…_ I decided to just roll with it though. I opened the door to the tent, which appeared to be made of canvas, and looked outside. The door just opened up in front of a cliff face, so I walked around to the other side of the tent… and tripped on one of the ropes holding it up. Like I always do when I go camping.

"Hey, are you ok?" Someone standing over me asked.

"Yeah, this actually happens to me a lot." I said, opening my eyes. Then I recognized who was standing over me.

"Oh my heck, you're _El Tigre_!!" I practically screamed. Actually Manny was in his normal cloths, but I was more used to the name of his show.

"Yeah, tell us something we don't know." Said a voice off to the side of me, a voice that I knew. A voice any self-respecting Avatard would recognize. I stood up to make sure I was right.

"_Oh my __**gosh!**__ Sokka!!"_ I started shouting again.

"You think I don't know my own name?" He asked me. He seemed kind of grumpy, "Quit screaming, you'll wake people up!"

"Well sheesh, what's put you in a sour mood?" I asked him.

"Just ignore him." Someone said, coming out of the tent behind me. I turned around and saw none other than Katara! I was so excited, but I managed to keep my composure. Sort of. I'm pretty sure I squeaked.

"Well, you'd be in a 'sour mood' too if the Shadows had come in and attacked your home, and then you had to come out here!"

I looked at Sokka. "Hello, they did! They attacked a friend of my family _and_ me! That's why I'm here."

"You volunteered!" Sokka retorted, "You didn't have to watch a whole army of the Fliers and Crawlers come in and attack your home, separate you from your friends and family, and then box you in so your only way of escape is a one-way portal into the Nicktoon Universal Plane!"

I was quiet for a few seconds. "I'm sorry. I didn't know." I finally said quietly. It sounded pretty lame and inadequate, but I've never been great with words. I didn't know what else to say. There was a long, awkward silence.

"So, how do you feel?" Katara asked me, to change the subject.

"Oh, I'm fine." I said. "A bit sore, but, you know, nothing bad enough to get me down."

"That's great. You were pretty beat up after you tried to grab that portal at the last second. I could tell you'd be fine while I was healing, but I'm a little surprised you're only a_ little_ sore." She said, and then looked at me seriously, "You shouldn't have done that. You could have been killed, getting caught in the end of the portal."

"Yeah, well I wouldn't have had to if…" And then, like a brick in the face, I realized something. "You guys tried to ditch me!" I yelled, pointing at Manny. (If you're wondering what he's been doing this whole time, Frida came up while I was ranting to Sokka and started talking to him) "I could have been _killed_ because you and Danny tried to _ditch me_!"

"I- uh- we didn't- _it was Danny's idea_!" Manny stammered.

"You tried to ditch her?" Frida asked incredulously, shaking her head. "Dude, that is _harsh_."

"It's dangerous being out here with the resistance, we couldn't just let some random person from the viewer world come!"

I walked away, not wanting to get into an argument. I decided to take a stroll around the camp, partially to think about _what the heck was going on here!_ And partially to see if I could find other Nicktoon characters I'd always wanted to meet.

I'll take this time to explain some things to you. I must seem pretty ditzy, tripping over a tent line, freaking out about meeting different cartoon characters, not remembering or realizing what had happened just before I left the school. Try to keep in mind I'd just been dragged through the rocky ditch that was an inter-dimensional portal. Add to that the fact that I'm sort of clumsy to begin with, and you get… well, I think you get the idea. Also, if it looks to you that I'm not as freaked out about being in another dimension as most people would be, then you'd be right. I've got what most people would call an "Over active imagination" I prefer to call it "Keeping my mind open to all the possibilities, no matter how improbable they are." Because of this, I'd actually though about this kind of thing happening to me before, among other things.

I was thinking about this as I was walking, but I was also thinking _what exactly is going on here?_ I mean, I knew that the shadows were bad, and apparently they'd forced people out of their own show/dimension and into this one. Wherever here was, but that was all I knew. The next question was _how did I get here in the first place?_ An inter-dimensional portal, obviously, but how'd it get there. The answer to that came almost as soon as the question formed in my mind. Jimmy Neutron. Of course if characters from Avatar, Danny Phantom, and El Tigre were here Jimmy would too! But that just brought up _how did the shadows get into my world? I doubt Jimmy just let them in._ My brain was filling with so many questions; it was a lot even for me! And I'm the very curious type. I'm pretty glad that at this time something interrupted my thoughts.

I saw someone opening one of the tents. Up until now, it had looked like everyone who I hadn't already talked to was in his or her own tent, asleep, like Sokka had said before. (That was another thing that was bothering me. It was afternoon when I'd left, and now it was early in the morning. Was there some sort of time laps, or had I really been away for more than twelve hours? My parents must be freaking out!) Anyways, since everyone was asleep, I hadn't met anyone while I was walking around the camp, and now someone was coming out of his tent.

Out walked a brown haired boy wearing a dark pink shirt and an iconic pink hat. He also had really big buckteeth. Another person I recognized instantly.

"Oh wow, you're Timmy Turner!" I said as quietly as I could while I was this excited.

"Yeah, and you're that crazy girl who followed Danny into the portal from the viewer's universe." Timmy said, but not in a mocking way. In a nice way, like we were two friends and he was bringing up a funny event that had happened in the past.

"Wow, I can't begin to tell you how excited I am to actually meet you in person! I've been watching your show since… Wow, since a long time ago. It's my most favorite cartoon."

"Uh, you're not the kind of fan who wants to marry their-"

"Haha_, no_. _**No**_. First, you're six years younger than me. Second, I've already got a boyfriend back home. _No_."

"Hey Timmy, who's out there?" A voice from inside the tent asked. Once again, it was a voice I recognized. It was Cosmo's voice, and he came out of the tent with his wife, Wanda.

"Wow, hi!" I said, again finding it hard to keep my voice down. I shook hands with both of them, once again I was known as 'The crazy girl who followed Danny into the portal from the viewer's world.' That didn't bug me though.

After I got introduced to Cosmo, Wanda, and a sleeping baby Poof, Timmy and I went for a walk around the camp. Cosmo and Wanda stayed at the tent, incase Poof woke up soon. As we walked, we asked each other some questions. Was there a town called Dimsdale in the viewer's world? Not that I knew of. Was Dimsdale far enough North for it to snow in the winter? It usually didn't snow, but in the mountains just north of Dimsdale they had enough for a ski resort. Did anyone ever think about TV shows having their own worlds? Some people wrote stories about it, but that's all they were, stories. Was there a TV show or a book about the viewer's world, like the viewer's saw the Nicktoon worlds? If there was one, Timmy had never seen or read it. (This didn't completely drive the idea from my mind, if it was a book, chances were Timmy _hadn't_ read it, he wasn't much of a reader)

Eventually we had walked the whole length of the camp, and I'd estimate there were around 25 to 20 people in it. Just outside of camp was a large field surrounded by steep outcrops of rock, and in the middle of this field was…

"Appa!" I yelled, guessing I was far enough from camp to raise my voice. The giant, fluffy, flying bison turned his head to look at me. Someone peeked around Appa and smiled.

"Hi!" Said none other than Aang the Avatar. I almost fainted. It's a good thing I didn't because I don't think Timmy could have caught me, I'm twice his size and with Cosmo and Wanda back at the tent, I would have either flattened him or knocked the wind out of my lungs.

"Hi!" I replied with equal enthusiasm, trying to hide the fact that my knees were about to give out from under me. I shook his hand, and surprisingly that helped me regain my composure.

_He's just a boy, just human, just like me. Only he can create fire and control air, water, and earth, and has a power in him that can flatten out a fleet of ships… Oh great, I'm going to make myself weak in the knees again!_

"So…" Aang said. Crud, had I created an awkward silence?

"How are things going with you?" I asked quickly. _Why did I ask that? I knew how things were going with him; things were going horrible with him! That's how things were going!_ "I'm sorry. Forget I said that." I added almost as soon as the first question escaped my mouth.

"That's alright." Aang reassured me. It looked like he was going to say more but…

"So what are _you two_ doing here?" a voice I recognized as Toph's asked from behind me. I turned around and was surprised by how close the blind earth bender was. I hadn't noticed her come up.

"You say that like you're implying something." Timmy said.

"You two have been walking around the camp like a couple of love-birds."

Timmy retched. I took two big steps away from Timmy.

"So, can I ask what happened to you when you came here?" Aang asked, probably trying to change the subject before it got awkward, _again_.

"Oh yeah." I obliged, "It started when I heard Mr. Mason, our school janitor, yelling outside…" I told the story as we started walking back to the camp. We just passed the first tents when I got to the point where I ended up here.

"So I reached into the portal just as it was closing and the next thing I knew I was in a tent out here."

"You were out cold when you came out, just after Danny and Manny. When Katara finished healing you, you were asleep from all the excitement." Aang filled me in on what happened right after my wild ride in the portal.

"Ooh, was I banged up bad?" I asked. (Probably a little _to_ enthusiastically)

"Yeah…"

"Hey, wait up!" I turned around to see Danny Fenton and Manny Rivera running over to catch up with me.

I was going to get excited like I did with everyone else. After all, Danny Phantom is one of my favorite shows. But then I remembered he'd tried to ditch me, and because of that I'd almost been killed.

"Hey." I said darkly, hinting I was about to chew him out.

"Alright, before you get mad, I just want to say that I'm sorry." Danny started before I could get a word in (quick guy).

"Eh-ehm" Manny cleared his throat.

"_We_ wanted to say we're sorry." Danny added.

"Yeah, things are different in the viewer's world. In our worlds, there's one person who's the hero, and they're easy to find and stuff." Manny tried to explain, "But in your world, there's no main character or underlying plot or anything! We couldn't just drag in some random person, for all we knew, you could have freaked out when you got here, or you might be crazy or something!"

"Which we still don't really know. You're not crazy, are you?" Timmy asked me.

"I'm totally fine with, and believing, that I've been sucked out of my own dimension into one filled with cartoons. Of course I'm crazy!" I told him, "But I think everyone is a little crazy in his or her own little way." It was a saying my friends and I had made up, because we're all crazy. Then I thought of another saying we'd made.

_It never ceases to amaze me that no matter how counter-productive or inconvenient it is, people always let personal squabbles control their lives._

I looked over at Danny and Manny. They really did look sorry. And it would _definitely_ be 'Counter-Productive' if I was holding a grudge against them while we were trying to combat the shadows. (And whatever else it was we were up against. I still didn't know!)

"You know what guys? It's alright, about ditching me." I said.

"It is!?" Manny asked in surprise.

"Yeah. How could you guys know I was determined and stubborn enough to chase after you? You had no way of knowing." I smiled at them.

"Timmy was right, you are crazy." Toph said after a few seconds of stunned silence. It's a good thing being called crazy doesn't bother me, because if it did, I'd be seriously angry by now.

I looked over all the new friends I had made in the past hour. I was adjusted to my surroundings, now it was time to find out what was going on.

"Timmy, can you take me to see Jimmy Neutron? I want to get some questions answered."


	4. I Get Answers, and More Questions

**A/N: Well, it's here. This chapter's pretty long. The Heroine fights with a character towards the end, but don't worry, it'll be worked out after a few chapters. It won't seem like it for a while, but it will be. Also, it's quite a cliffie.**

We were back in camp now, and I think most people were waking up. There was definitely some activity coming from inside the tents, but I didn't see anyone else come out.

I was going to see Jimmy Neutron, and if you've ever even _heard of_ the show you know that the kid's a genius. If anyone could answer my questions, it would be him. While we were walking, I tried to organize these questions into a list in my head.

1. Where is here? (Here meaning the Nicktoon Universal Plane)

2. What are the shadows, and is there anything else we're up against?

3. How did the shadows get into reality?

4. How did I get here for that matter?

5. What are the shadows trying to do?

6. _What the crap is going on here!?_ (I figured if all my other questions didn't cover everything, that question would)

We reached the same area where Timmy's tent was, sort of near the middle. One of the tents looked more like a steel shed, and it didn't take me long to realize that's probably what it was.

"So is this Jimmy's… not a tent, obviously… temporary HQ?" I asked.

"Yeah, pretty much." Danny said.

I was about to knock when Carl and Sheen walked up to our little group.

"Hey guys, what'cha doin'?" Sheen asked.

"We're looking for Jimmy." I said.

"Hey, you're that girl that showed up in the middle of the night last night!" Carl said.

"Um… Yeah, that's me, I guess."

"He's in there," Sheen said, gesturing to the shed, "I think he's running analysis on something. Here, we'll let you in."

After Sheen punched in a few random numbers onto a keypad and slammed his head into the door, I walked in. No one else followed, and I wasn't sure if that was because they thought my questions would be 'personal' or if they thought we wouldn't all fit in the shed.

It actually seemed bigger from the inside, and it didn't take me long to figure it probably was, by the same technology as his infinite-storage cube. It didn't look like Jimmy had noticed me come in. My guess was that he was to busy working on something to notice. That something just happened to be Jenny, a six-foot tall robot with the appearance, mind, and personality of a teenage girl.

"Thanks for fixing my knee joint, Jimmy." The robot girl thanked him, "Usually back home my mom or Sheldon takes care of these things. It's nice to know _someone_ around here knows how to handle _this_ kind of problem"

"It was my pleasure, Jenny. I wouldn't want you to have a malfunction while we're trying to break back into the Four Nations tomorrow…" Jimmy turned around and saw me standing in the doorway, with a grin on my face the size of a half moon.

"Hi!" I said, letting off some of my excitement.

"Hi." Jenny replied, giving me an appraising look.

"Um, hi…" Jimmy offered as a formality and then immediately got down to business, "What are you doing here?"

"I have some questions to ask you, actually. I just got here last night, you see…"

"Yes, we know." The two of them said simultaneously.

"Sheesh, does _everyone_ in camp know?"

"Probably" Jimmy answered.

"Well, as you know, I just got here, and I have no idea what's going on or what we're up against! I just want to, you know, get some answers and figure out what's going on. Like, how'd that shadow get into my dimension, and where are we? How'd I get here and why is Sokka so grouchy, and- "

"Hold on!" Jimmy cut me off just in time; I was starting to get hysterical. "It sounds like you have a lot of questions. Can we talk about this over breakfast?"

"Breakfast?" I asked longingly. I'd just realized I hadn't eaten since breakfast back at my own home, at the time I'd though I would be eating whatever we made in that stupid baking class for lunch. "That sounds delightful right about now. I'm ravenous…" Just the thought of food was making me drool and feel like I was going to keel over at the same time.

"Right. So we'll go get something to eat at the Mess Hall and talk about it." Jimmy agreed.

"Ok, you guys have a good breakfast, I'll just go back to my tent." Jenny said as we left Jimmy's HQ.

"Oh yeah, I forgot you don't eat Jenny." I said, "Do you want to come anyway? We can talk about stuff."

"Actually, I have some things to take care off…"

"Did Tuck sleepwalk again last night?" Jimmy asked.

"… Yes."

"Oh, Ok then, I guess I'll see you later then." I waved goodbye.

"Tuck's here?" I asked Jimmy.

"Yes, Brad and Tuck came with Jenny when the shadows invaded Tremorton."

"The shadows invaded Tremorton?" I asked incredulously.

"Yes, actually the shadows have invaded most of our hometowns. That has to do with one of your questions, but there are some other things I'll need to explain first," Both our stomachs grumbled audibly, "And I'd really like to get something to eat before I have to explain the whole thing."

"Ok." I sighed. "So what's the story behind Tuck's 'sleepwalking'?"

Jimmy snickered. "The first night he was here he sleepwalked, and the next morning Katara found him in her tent."

I laughed at the thought. "So what'd he do last night?"

"I don't know; you'll have to ask Jenny next time you see her."

I followed Jimmy to a large, long pavilion that was obviously made with earth bending. One side didn't have a wall and I could see several picnic benches and a cafeteria-style lunch-line. I ran to where they were serving food.

"Hi there! What can I get for you?" The yellow sea-sponge behind the counter asked. Once again, I almost fainted.

"You're Spongebob Squarepants!" I squeaked excitedly.

He laughed his iconic laugh, "Yep, that's me! Do you want anything for breakfast?"

"Oh you have no idea!" I replied hungrily, "What've you got?"

"Well, we have Kraby Breakfast Patties."

"How are they different from regular Kraby Patties?"

"They have eggs and bacon, along with the patty and cheese."

My mouth started watering. I love eggs and bacon, and I was starving.

"Two please!" I said. Spongebob handed them to me on a tray, and I immediately started wolfing down the first one. The TV show was not kidding; these things were good! I had finished the first one before I even sat down next to Jimmy, where I started to eat the second one, this time a little more slowly.

"So," Jimmy started, "I think the best way to answer all your questions is to tell you what's happened from the beginning."

I nodded while taking a big swallow. "Ok."

Jimmy launched into a long explanation of what the shadows were and what they were doing. I'll tell you right now that I did get what he was saying, but I can't begin to remember all the terminology he used. Here's a slightly condensed version, as well as I can remember it.

"Whenever a cartoon world is created, it always varies from reality. No matter how 'realistic' a cartoon is it's always different from the 'real' world. These differences are bundled together as shadows, because most cartoons are less evil than the 'real' world. The shadows created from Nicktoon worlds live here on the Nicktoon Universal Plane, which is the area that connects all the Nicktoon's mini-verses."

"Mini-verses?" I asked between mouthfuls, "What are those?"

"A mini-verse is like an incomplete universe. Is there any place you have never been or heard of?"

"Yes, I've never been outside of the United States."

"Well, the difference between a mini-verse and a universe is that places you have never been to or heard of in your universe still exist. I'm the 'main character' in my mini-verse, so if the creator of the show hasn't added a place that means I've never been to or heard of it, so it doesn't exist."

"Ah, I see."

"As I was saying, the shadows have always been there, and they come in three basic form. The shadows you saw at your hometown were Pouncers. They're most easily defeated by being stabbed or sliced with metal, like your knife. The two other kinds of shadows are Fliers and Crawlers. Fliers, as the name would suggest, can fly. They look like giant mosquitoes, and usually drop bombs on us. They're most easily defeated by extremes in temperature, like fire and ice. They're also pretty easy to blow off course with a strong blast of wind. The Crawlers are actually like living tanks; explosions and missiles are the easiest way to defeat them. All the shadows are extremely vulnerable to ghost-rays and other ecto-based weapons."

I nodded. That explained why Danny had been able to take on the Pouncer back home all by himself.

"The shadows have the unique ability to travel between mini-verses. Sometimes they'd show up in our hometowns, but they have never really been any problem until about six months ago. For some reason around that time they all broke out of the Universal Plane and attacked our own mini-verses in large numbers. They started with Retroville and Dimsdale, but they spread out quickly. At first they were easy to push back, but their numbers got to be too great for us. At first just a few of us were fighting them. Danny and Spongebob volunteered, but we lost Amity Park's mini-verse not long after Retroville and Dimsdale." He saw the confused look on my face. "When there are too many shadows in a mini-verse they can block us from opening a portal back." Jimmy smiled, "At least they used to."

"Used to? What do you mean?" I asked, now insanely curious.

"Well, the shadows have been preventing us from opening any conventional portals between here and any mini-verse they've taken over, but I've developed a new portal that is strong enough to break through. We tested it yesterday when Danny and Manny teleported into the viewer's world."

"What's that got to do with anything?" I asked. "And Danny said that he came into the viewer's world to find those shadows. Was he just making that up?"

"Well, that's one thing that has me worried." Jimmy told me. "You asked if there was anything other than the shadows that we were up against, right? Well, I think there might be. The shadows aren't supposed to be able to travel to the viewer's world. It takes even more power than it does to break through their barrier. For the past month I've been tracking the shadows' movements, and just a week ago, a few of them appeared in your universe."

I looked at my empty food tray, deep in thought. "So you have no idea how their doing it?" I finally asked.

"No, but now that I know the new portal works, we can go back into mini-verses the shadows have invaded and push them back out. I'm sure we'll find some clue of how they're doing it while we're fighting them."

I wanted to say something like, 'It's driving you crazy that you don't know something, isn't it?' but I figured that'd be rude. Instead I talked about the battle tomorrow.

"So tomorrow you're going to use this new portal to go back to the Four Nations and push the shadows out? That's going to be really cool, I've always wanted to go there. And I'll get to fight along side some of my favorite cartoon characters, how great is that?"

Jimmy, who had been taking a drink of milk, did a spit-take. "Who ever said you were even coming?!"

"Oh come on, I'm already here, I might as well help." I reasoned.

Jimmy shook his head. "No way, you can't. You don't have any experience fighting like this. You've seen our shows; you know it's different. Surely you realize that you wouldn't last more than a few minuets out there!"

I was definitely ticked-off then. "I took care of myself with the shadows at my school, didn't I?" I was raising my voice, a small crowd was gathering around us.

"You were lucky."

"I don't think so. I've been taking Tae-Kwon-Do for two years, I'm the best archer in my school, and even though I'd never used one before, I used that knife to take care of two shadows." I looked over at Danny and Manny, who were standing in the small crowd. "You guys will vouch for me, right?"

"Sure!" Manny replied confidently before whispering to Frida, "What's 'vouch' mean?"

"I don't know dude, I always figured it was some kind of bird!"

Danny was a little more convincing. "You should let her come Jimmy, even if you don't, she'll find a way there."

I was glad to see Danny had learned something from our little incident. I gave him a grateful smile.

"Come on Neutron, you said we'd need all the help we could get tomorrow." Timmy reasoned.

"Unfortunately, she may be more of a hindrance than a help. We can't afford to waste time saving her back." Jimmy replied.

Oh. No. He. Did. Not! "_Excuse me_?!" I fumed, "I can make a difference! Even if I have to fall back after a while, I can still help! I could pick them off from a difference with a good bow and arrow, I could—"

"**Hold It!**" Someone shouted from behind the crowd. Everyone turned to see Spongebob holding a megaphone. Sheesh, had we really been that loud?

"**I know a way you can prove that you can help.**" He said into the megaphone.

"Uh, you can turn off the megaphone Spongebob." Jimmy told him.

"**Oh, sorry.**" He turned off the megaphone. "But I know a way you can prove that you can help." He said to me. "You can try the _Combat Simulator._"

"The _Combat Simulator_?" I asked curiously.


	5. One Big, Fancy Video Game

**Author's Note: I'm posting again, because school is OVER! YEAH! Anywho, I'll be more regular in my updating from now on. Oh, and you get to see how crappy I am at action writing here. This chapter, actually, is the best action writing I've ever done, in my opinion. Enjoy!**

**5: Simulated Combat. AKA: One Big, Fancy Video Game**

"What's the _Combat Simulator_?" I asked curiously. It sounded like my brother's WWII computer game.

"It's a virtual first-person interface that realistically reproduces combat situations at graduated levels." Jimmy explained.

"So it's like a giant virtual-reality game?" I surmised.

"It is _not_ a video game!" The boy genius insisted.

"Yeah it is." Timmy said, "It's just like _The Chronicle of Kline_ for Vii, only way more realistic."

I wondered if _The Chronicle of Kline_ was the Dimsdale mini-verse's version of _The Legend of Zelda_. I figured Vii was the latest version of the V-cube.

"Video game or not, I'll do it, and I'll win." I insisted.

"It's way more difficult than your average video game." Danny said.

"_It is not a video game!_" Jimmy yelled.

"It doesn't matter!" I yelled back. "Just take me to it so I can prove that I can fight!"

"Alright, if you really think you can do it follow me." Jimmy said.

I followed him back to his HQ, where another, smaller steel shed stood. After punching in a few random numbers, the boy genius opened the door to reveal a room completely filled with technology that was probably twenty years more advanced then the latest thing Apple and Microsoft were working on right now.

"You'll need to put these on to work the simulator properly." Jimmy said handing me some hi-tech looking gloves, socks, as well as two sets of tubes made of the same fabric.

"They're sleeves for your arms and legs." Jimmy clarified.

"Uh, they can go on _over _my pants, right?" I asked after slipping on the arm sleeves.

"Yes."

After I got the leg sleeves on over my jeans, which wasn't as difficult as I'd expected, Fudge Head handed me a helmet with a fancy visor like a knight's helm, and yet another piece of special fabric.

"Strap that one around your waist. This fabric has electrodes and neuro-receptors for complete interface with the simulator. If you get hit, you'll feel it."

I was suddenly reminded of the book _Heir Apparent_, and wondered if this was safe. But I didn't want to sound scared before I'd even tried, so instead I asked some questions about the mechanics.

"How do the neuro-receptors work through my cloths?" I asked, "And how's this going to pick up the parts of my body it doesn't cover?"

Jimmy ignored my questions and continued his explanation. "The helmet will give you full visual and audio interaction with the simulator. Once you have it on, I'll turn the whole system on. If you can get past the first level, then maybe we'll think of letting you come to the Four Nations."

"First level? This _is _just like a video game!" I said as I pulled on the helmet.

"It's _not_ a-" Jimmy began to fume again, but before he could finish, I was already in the game.

-.-.-

I was in the same field the camp was in, only there were no tents, and it was cold and misty. The water particles were barely big enough to see, and while they hung in the air and were white like snow, they were wet, and stung like rain when they hit my face.

"Oh yeah, definitely the most advanced video game ever built." I thought out loud. "But they'll have to do better than cold and frozen mist to deter me! I'm a snow-boarder; I was born and raised at the foot of the Rockies! This is typical weather in April!"

I walked around and found a stick long and thick enough to be a staff. There are millions of things you can do with a staff. You can use it while you're hiking, you can use it as the center support in a make-shift tent, and as far as combat goes, you can whack, stab, and even parry like a sword if the wood's strong enough.

Almost as soon as I picked up the staff, I heard something behind me. I whiled around and saw what looked like a mini-pouncer crouched in the grass. It leaped at me with a snarl. I whacked it out of the air like it was a baseball. It flew far to my right.

"Foul." I sighed, "Again. I couldn't hit a baseball straight to save my life."

I walked to the general area where I think the mini-pouncer landed and looked for it. There was no trace. After searching a little harder, I figured it had just disappeared into smoke, like the other shadows I'd faced.

I almost asked aloud when this was going to get 'way more difficult than your average video game', but I didn't, because I was sure if I did it would immediately start.

Well, it turns out you don't even have to say it out loud. Three seconds later I heard a much louder snarl, accompanied by several more.

Seven bigger virtual-pouncers were running toward me with fluid speed.

"Oh poop!" I cried and ran towards the forest that bordered the field. I'd lose them in the trees and then pick them off one by one.

The pouncers were fast, but I had enough of a head start to reach the trees first. I scrambled up a tree faster than I ever had before. I waited in an overhanging branch for the first of the virtual shadows to pass by, my staff held readily.

I didn't wait very long. I heard it before I saw it, crashing through the underbrush. I got ready to jump and saw it out of the corner of my eye. I tried to time my leap just right.

"**Geronimo**!" I yelled as I sprang from the branch, swinging my staff down like Aang does when he air bends. Except, of course, I couldn't air bend, so I had to hit the pouncer with the actual stick. Luckily for me, the virtual pouncer skidded to a halt when it heard me yell. Unluckily for the pouncer, it was right beneath where my staff. It dissipated into smoke.

"One down, six to go. This is going to take forever." I complained. Well, at least the trees blocked most of the rainy mist, or misty rain, or snowy fog, or whatever it was.

More rustling in the underbrush alerted me to another shadow. I turned toward the noise just in time to see it leap from beneath a bush. I held my staff up horizontally to block its claws and hoped desperately that the wood wouldn't break. It didn't.

"That's strong wood." I said in amazement after the pouncer bounced off. "Which means it should really hurt when I do _this_!" I whacked it over the head. It snarled and lashed out at me, I narrowly blocked the blow.

"Just disintegrate already!" I yelled as I repeatedly jabbed and whacked it. After a few more hits it did.

"I gotta do this five more times!?" I exclaimed to the heavens, "This is ridiculous!" Never the less, I took care of the last four shadows in a similar matter. I was actually chasing after the last one, instead of the other way around, when I left the forest.

"Come back here, you annoying little beast!" I yelled at it when I realized I was back in the cold, wet mist. I proceeded with caution; the shadow could easily sneak up on me in this weather. Then I spotted movement out of the corner of my eye. I swung my staff out and caught the virtual pouncer under the chin. The last one finally dissolved into smoke.

"Gotcha." I said with self-satisfaction. Then I shivered as the mist turned to full-out rain.

"Good job. I'll admit you're doing a lot better than I expected." A voice behind me said.

"Jimmy?" I turned around and saw the boy genius standing in a raincoat inside what looked to me like a mini-basketball court. "Thanks, that's a compliment coming from you." I said sarcastically. "So, are you here to tell me I'm done?"

"Not quite. Before you finish, you'll have to defeat _me_ in a little combat."

"_You!?_"

"Well, this is like a _video game_, isn't it? Think of me as the _boss_ for this level."

I grinded my teeth to hold back my opinion of this little un-expected twist. "Let's just get it done and over with then." I groaned after I swallowed my opinionated words.

"Alright then." Jimmy said. "The first one knocked out of the ring loses. No attacks to the face or… other sensitive areas."

I couldn't help but giggle at that. "Ok. I'm ready when you are."

"Begin." A voice said from nowhere and everywhere at the same time. Oh yeah, this isn't anything like a video game. _Not_.

I let Jimmy make the first move, just to see what he had. Turns out it was a Tornado Blaster, just like in the Nicktoons Unite video game.

"Ok, that's a little unfair." I complained after I narrowly dodged a gust. "I've got a stick, and you've got a wind-gun."

"Well, if you want to fight the shadows, you'll have to be ready to take on anything."

I groaned and shivered in the rain as I tried to remember the time when I learned how to disarm someone in my Tae Kwon Do class. I held my staff like a sword at one end and expertly jabbed the other end at fudge-head's wrist. I missed.

"I'm more out of practice than I thought." I whispered to myself. I was too preoccupied with the thought to notice a gust from Jimmy's Tornado Blaster.

The wind combined with the rain and mist that had already soaked me made me feel like I was in a blizzard, a late-December, Canadian blizzard in the Arctic Circle. The force of the gust almost blew me out of the ring. I landed with one foot inside the court, the other still in the air. I stuck my staff in the ground and levered myself toward the center of the ring.

"You'll have to do better than that!" I smirked at Jimmy. I swung my staff at his feet to trip him. He stepped on the end of the stick and trapped it under his foot. I yanked at it until the end actually broke under his shoe.

"I'm freezing my rear off in a place I didn't know existed yesterday, and I'm getting my but kicked by an eleven-year-old. This had better be worth what I'm putting myself through!" I whispered to myself. Of course, it was worth it. I knew that, I just wasn't so sure I could do it.

Another gust narrowly avoided me, but the breeze I felt still chilled me.

"Oh, I just wish I had my coat to keep warm!" I cried in frozen frustration.

With a _poof_ and a small cloud of fairy-dust, I was wearing a warm orange and red coat.

"Huh?" I expressed my confusion.

"You get one free wish." Jimmy explained.

"_No one ever told me that! Why didn't you tell me that!?_" I cried indignantly. "That is _so_ unfair. I could have wished for a bow and arrows, I could have wished for a knife, I could have wished for a _light-saber!_"

"You'll have to make due, won't you?" Jimmy smirked at me this time.

I swallowed my arguments. He was right. Arguing wasn't going to get me anywhere. At least I was warm. _And maybe I could strangle my increasingly annoying opponent with the sleeves._

I started to swing my staff like a bat at Jimmy's gun. Eventually I'd remember that disarming technique.

After a while I got a little too close and sloppy. The super-genius tripped me and I face-planted I the mud.

"Ow! Jimmy, that… actually that really didn't hurt at all." I realized that I was hardly stinging, when a fall like that would normally leave me holding back tears.

"Of course not." Jimmy explained, "It's a simulation. You're not going to get really hurt. And by the way." He pointed to my midriff. I looked down and saw that I was half-way out of the ring.

I groaned as I became aware that I was in the simulator shed again. At least I was dry and warm again… Oh who am I kidding, this stunk!

**Author's Note: Would it kill people who aren't Luiz4200 to review this story? BTW, thanks for being a great supporter Luiz. And thanks for the review from Liana-Wolfe. It made me feel good to know that my story... made you feel good... while you were sick. Hope you're feeling better now. (Serriously, if you're still sick, that'd be awful. I'm sure you're better now)  
**


	6. Looking Back, it Sounds Pathetic

**Author's Note: I'm sorry it took me so long to update this, but I was working on two other stories that I have now finnished! YEA! Now I only have two stories to focus on so updates should be a little better, even though school starts next week.**

**6: Looking Back, it Sounds Pathetic**

I stormed out of the simulator shed and found everyone standing outside the door, most of them giving me apprehensive looks, like they were expecting me to explode. They expected correctly.

"_**That was totally unfair!"**_ I screeched, _**"First he conveniently forgot to tell me I have a free wish, then he baited me!"**_

"Oh, so you think a real opponent _won't_ bait you?" Jimmy asked as he stepped out of the crowd.

"Uh, considering that shadows don't talk, _yeah_!"

"None of the ones that you've met, but a few of the bigger ones can."

I gave a low sigh in frustration and clenched and un-clenched my fists a few times, trying to think of more arguments. Only one came to me.

"Danny warned you that if you didn't let me come, I'd find another way. He's right. I will. So, do you want to bring me along with the rest of the group and know where I am, or make me get there on my own and possibly almost get killed again."

Jimmy gave me an incredulous look. "You'd risk that _again_?"

"That's what I just said." I took a steadying breath, and then plowed on, "My motto is 'Always help your friends when they need it, whether they ask for it or not.'

"I can count all my other friends on one hand! My sister, my boyfriend, and three girls from school, and one of them is moving away soon…. oh wait, and one of the guys I play trombone with."

"That's more than one hand." Jimmy pointed out.

"I know, but it's close enough! My point is, I don't have a lot of friends, so the ones I _do_ have, I help in every way I can, and you guys are my friends."

"You just met us!" Sokka called out of the crowd.

"No I haven't! When my Guinea Pig died, I watched the first two Jimmy/Timmy Power Hours twice each, so I could laugh again. When my dad didn't take me camping after weeks of anticipation, Spongebob cheered me up and took me camping with him. When I was sick while we were visiting my Aunt and they all left to see a movie without me, I watched a Danny Phantom marathon to keep me from freaking out about being in that creepy house all alone. When I broke my arm, Jenny took my mind off the pain. When I flew on an airplane for the very first time, just two days after I'd watched a show on the Science Channel about planes crashing into each other on the runway, Manny calmed me down. Avatar is one of only two shows that everyone in my family enjoys watching. You guys are some of the best friends I've ever had!" Which, looking back, sounds _really_ pathetic.

Jimmy watched me for a few seconds before speaking. "I'll think about it."

Oh brother. 'I'll think about it' he says. I know what that means. I wished there was another way to convince him without coming on too strong.

"Well, think long and hard." Was all I could think of to say before I walked back to my tent.

"Are you ok?" Katara asked me when I climbed out of my tent later that day. (I was hungry, and I could smell the dinner they were cooking)

"Yeah, I'm fine, I just needed some time to rest." I said as I rubbed my eyes. It was then that I realized I'd been crying. I rubbed my eyes harder to try and hide it. "And my allergies are acting up."

"_Right_." Toph said sarcastically. Dang, I forgot, she can tell if you're lying. I shrugged to show that I didn't want to talk about it and sat down next to their campfire. Katara offered me some of whatever they were cooking. I was hungry enough to take it without asking what was in it. (I probably didn't want to know) It tasted like my dad's sweet'n'sour pork.

"So," I said, trying to start conversation that did not involve my outburst earlier that day, "tomorrow you guys are going home. I can't imagine how nerve-racking that must be.

"No you couldn't." Sokka muttered.

I sighed. I really needed to resolve this. Then I realized something that made me feel so stupid I could have slapped myself. How could I have forgotten that? I chose my next words carefully.

"Suki's there, isn't she?" Sokka only nodded. Everyone else was giving me looks that clearly said I should drop it, but I had it under control. Hopefully.

"I'm sorry, that's terrible. Tomorrow, if you want, I'll help you look for her in any way I can. I'm sure she's fine."

"You mean _if_ you're coming tomorrow." Sokka corrected me.

"Oh, I'm going. Regardless of what Fudge-Head says, I'm coming."

For the first time since I'd arrived, Sokka actually smiled. "You're really stubborn."

"That's already been established." I replied, also smiling.

I spent the rest of the night talking with the Avatar gang. It was mostly me asking them questions, but we also talked about how things were here on the Nicktoons Universal Plane, and about how I'd learned Tae-Kwon-Do and archery. I went to bed feeling pretty good about tomorrow. Unfortunately, if what I saw when I first woke up was an omen, things didn't look so good for the rest of the day.

"Aaaahhhhh!"

**Author's Note: I hate giving a cliffie when I know I have serrious writer's block for the next chapter, but I felt like you guys needed an update.**


	7. Luck be a Lady

**Author's Note: How long has it been since the last chapter? A little less than a month ago? Well, that's not too bad, compared to the space between the other chapters! I hope the few people who have found this story enjoy the new chapter! **

**Disclaimer: Luck be a Lady Tonight is the title of one of my favorite songs from my favorite musical, Guys and Dolls. (My very favorite song in that musical is Good Ol' Reliable Nathan Detroit. Also, the musical verson of the song is a hundred times better than the Frank Sinatra version)  
**

**7: Luck be a Lady**

"Aaaahhhhh!" I yelled when I saw a short, nine-year-old boy with black hair standing over me, "Tuck, what on earth are you doing in my tent!?"

"Oh, you mean this is your tent?" Tuck Carbuncle asked me.

"I'm sleeping here, aren't I?" I rolled my eyes.

"I was just looking for my tent."

I looked out the tent door. It was still dark out.

"What are you doing up this late?" I asked him.

"I was sleepwalking, and I ended up in the woods, so I had to find my way back to camp in the dark. I thought this was the other end of the campsite where my tent is."

"There isn't a cliff face at the other end of the campsite." I reminded him.

"Oh."

He just stood there for another moment before I asked him: "Do you need me to walk you back to your tent?"

"Would you?" Tuck asked in a sweet-nine-year-old voice.

"If it'll get you out of my tent." I said grudgingly.

So we walked. I was in the pajamas that Cosmo and Wanda had kindly _poofed_ up for me, and Tuck was in a nightshirt that was a few sizes too big for him. We were quiet for most of the walk to the other side of camp. Partly because we didn't want to wake anyone up, and partly because I was tired and a little annoyed at being woken up at about three in the morning.

Finally we reached the Carbuncle's tent. I could tell because Brad was standing in the door flap looking even more annoyed at his brother than I was.

"Tuck!" Brad whispered as angrily and loudly as he could. "Were you 'sleepwalking' again?" He made air-quotes around "sleepwalking".

"Hey, what are the air-quotes for?" Tuck whispered indignantly, "I can't help it if I sleepwalk!"

"Really? Because I'm starting to see a pattern in the tents you end up in." Brad whispered back. "First Katara's tent, then Sam's, and now _hers_!" He pointed at me.

"Uh, I think I'll go back to bed now." I said quickly before I got dragged into the argument. I could here the whispers getting progressively louder as I walked away.

I walked back to my tent, flopped into my sleeping bag, and fell asleep at once. When I woke up, it was light outside, and I was _really _hungry. I decided my first stop that morning would be the mess hall.

The first thing I noticed when I walked out of my tent was that it was unusually quiet. Maybe everyone was asleep? I walked around the tent and saw that the campfires were still smoldering, which meant someone had already lit them and put them out. Maybe I'd slept in and…

"Oh crap." I said, even though no one was there to hear me. _Maybe I'd slept in and missed everyone leaving for the Four Nations!_

"Oooh crap." I repeated after I completed the thought in my head. My plan had been to just sneak my way to the middle of all the people getting into the portal and blend in with the crowd until I was there. _Now_ what was I supposed to do?

Well, since I'd already missed the portal, I might as well get something to eat while I thought of a way to get there myself.

To my surprise, the mess hall wasn't empty. There were four people there: Tuck Carbuncle, Carl Wheezer, Cosmo, and Poof.

"Morning sleepy-head!" Cosmo greeted me cheerfully as I entered the mess hall.

"What are you all doing here?" I asked, "Didn't everyone leave for the battle in the Four Nations?"

"Well, everyone else did." Tuck said through a mouthful of cereal. "But I'd rather stay here than get blown up by one of those Shadows."

"Yeah, and I would've gone, but the battle's taking place on an island, and I'm allergic to sea-water." Carl added.

"What about you, Cosmo?" I asked him. "Why didn't you go?"

"Well _someone_ had to stay here and take care of Poof!"

I was surprised that Wanda trusted Cosmo with the baby, but then I realized there really wasn't anyone else who knew how to take care of a fairy baby. She certainly wasn't going to let _Timmy_ watch him again.

I sat down and bit into a chocolate muffin from off a breakfast plate. So I'd been left here with the panaphobe, the guy who's allergic to everything, and the idiot. _Thanks a lot, Fudge Head._

I decided that I'd need to take a direct approach to my problem. "Ok, so can any of you help me get there?" I asked.

"Nope." Tuck said.

"No, sorry." Carl replied.

"Where?" Cosmo asked confusedly.

I sighed with frustration. "Can you at least tell me where the portal generator is? Carl, you're friends with Neutron, you must know where it is!"

"It's still set up behind his shed." Carl answered. I made to get up. "But you need a twelve-figure access code to work it."

I groaned. "You wouldn't happen to know the code, would you?" Carl shook his head.

I groaned louder and ripped the toast I had picked up in half. "Well, 'Luck be a Lady Tonight', I guess."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Tuck asked.

"I'll try and guess at it." I said.

I jogged over to the portal generator. On the way I tried to figure the odds. Let's see, the access code is twelve figures. With that many it _has_ to have repeatability, so there's a one in ten chance of getting the right digit, so that's a twelve to the tenth power… Holey Mackerel! And what if 'figures' meant it could have letters too? That'd be a twelve to the thirty-sixth power! I wouldn't just need luck to be a lady; I'd need an honest-to-goodness, raise-Lazarus-from-the-dead miracle! Oh, I just wish I has some kind of hint or…

Wish. I am an idiot.

"Cosmo!" I yelled as I ran back to the mess hall, "Cosmo, I need to ask you a favor! Cosmo!"

"What's the matter?" Cosmo asked me, "I haven't heard someone yell my name that much since I pushed Wanda down the Fairy World rainbow. Wow, there wasn't a manly word in _that_ sentence either!"

"Cosmo, please! I wish I knew the access code to the portal generator!"

The green haired fairy just looked at me for a moment. Then he started laughing. Uncontrollably. It looked like I'd hit another obstacle. Finally, his laughter calmed down.

"Ok, so what did you really want?"

"That_ is_ what I really want!"

"I can't grant you a wish! You're not my godchild!"

"You got me the pajamas!"

"Timmy told us to get you anything you needed to be comfortable that night."

"Oh, come on!" I yelled, "What's gonna happen if you break the rules here? You're in another mini-verse, how would they know? And what would they do? Jorgen is probably under a shadow's butterfly net right now!"

"Yeah, probably." Cosmo agreed.

"So will you help me?"

"Help you what?"

I slapped my forehead and was forcibly reminded of the wallet conversation between Patrick Star and Manray from an episode of Spongebob.

"Cosmo, I wish I knew the access code to Jimmy's portal generator." If he said 'no' again I was planning on just stealing his wand.

"Ok!" The slow fairy complied happily.

With a _poof_ I suddenly knew the access code. No, I more than knew it, I knew it like I'd tirelessly memorized it and then used it all the time. I knew it better than my phone number or my street address, and much better than I knew my zip-code.

"_Thank You!!_" I cried excitedly as I grabbed Cosmo in a bear hug.

"Hey! I'm glad you're happy now, but I've got to go! Poof's going to wake up from his nap soon!"

"Oh, wait!" I had remembered something, "Before you go, I also wish I had a bow and a quiver filled with an endless supply of arrows!" _Poof!_ An already-strung re-curve bow and a large but light quiver appeared. The bow was just like the one I favored at the shooting range.

"Cosmo, you are the _best_!" I cried ecstatically, but he was already gone. I didn't blame him; I'd read a comic about Poof waking up from a nap before in Nick Mag. It was not a good idea for the little guy to be alone at the time.

I ran to the portal generator and typed in the code. A large swirling circle of pink portal energy was projected into thin air about five feet away. I was finally going to get there.

"Luck's been a Lady Tonight!" I said with a grin.

**Author's Note: I'm sorry I leave so many cliff-hangers, it's part of story telling! Update speed depends on how much homework my Physics and PreCalc. teachers decide to assign.**


	8. So That's Where the Battle is

**Author's Note: Well, I'm back. Sorta. I've got this chapter anyway. When the next one comes is anyone's guess. If I'm not working on a scholarship or homework, my parents aren't happy, so it's hard to find time to write. They haven't gone so far to say that I'm not alowed to write new chapters, but whenever they see me typing something on Word that isn't scholarly-related they start breathing down my neck. Thanks to everyone who is still reading this!**

**8: So That's Where the Battle is!  
**

Although I wasn't conscious for most of the last ride, I noticed that this portal trip was much more comfortable than the previous one. I was gliding at extreme speeds through the stars, weightless. It was a weird sensation. Pink-colored clouds swirled around me. They got thicker and thicker until I noticed I was slowing down, and the pink clouds had formed a sort of tunnel around me. Soon I saw the end of the tunnel coming towards me.

_Thump!!_

I landed hard on my rear. "Owwww!" I groaned. Why didn't anyone warn me about the hard landing? Oh yeah, because I came on my own, and no one was expecting me. I got up and looked at my surroundings.

The smell of sea-water was foreign to me; I had never visited the ocean before. I could see it spread out around the island at the bottom of the cliff I stood on top of. I could also smell something that was a bit more familiar to me. Anyone who'd been to Yellowstone would recognize the odor of hot springs, and I'd been to the national park many times.

Taking this in took about five seconds. Then my thoughts were interrupted by what sounded a lot like those WWII movies of the Germans bombing London. I turned around and thought _Oh, so that's where the battle is!_

Giant monsters that looked like a cross between a mosquito and a horsefly, my two least favorite flying insects, were buzzing overhead and dropping bombs over a large, steaming lake. Now I recognized where I was! I was on the Boiling Rock! I looked to my left and saw a gondola full of Nicktoons characters crossing toward the prison compound, which appeared to be the Shadows' stronghold. It looked like another gondola had already dropped its load off and was just coming back to my side of the lake.

I ran toward the gondola depot to catch the next ride across the lake. There didn't seem to be much action out here away from the compound, but once you got about halfway across the lake the air became thick with Flyers. I hopped into the second gondola and started across.

I was looking out the window, trying to see if my gondola might catch up with the others', when I saw a Flyer circle around theirs and hover right over the top, where the people inside couldn't see it. It got ready to drop a bomb.

"Oh no!" I whispered, and before I even knew what I was doing I'd knocked an arrow and shot it into the bomb. _Ka-Boom!_ It exploded in mid-air!

"Whoa! How'd I just… Did I just…" I stammered, "Huh?" I was a good archer, sure, but I'd never tried hitting a moving target before, much less a dropping bomb. How'd that happen? Did I get lucky? Was it a miracle? Was I just a better archer under stress?

The people in the second gondola heard the explosion and every one of them tried to stick their head out a window at the same time. Danny looked out of the window closest to my ride and spotted me. He looked like he was only mildly surprised to see me there. I waved. He waved back, probably just to let me know he'd seen it. He turned to talk to someone behind him, then, to my surprise, flew out the window and over to my gondola.

"I thought you'd show up soon." Danny said as he came in through the window. "Did you see that bomb go off just above us? What happened?"

"Umm, I'm not sure, but I think I shot it." I said awkwardly, holding up my bow.

"You _think_ you shot it?" He asked, confused.

"Well, I'm not _that_ good of a shot! It was falling, and I was far away… maybe it hit a bird." I reasoned.

"What's wrong with suddenly being good at archery? You act like that's a bad thing." Danny said.

"It doesn't make sense!" I exclaimed. But then I calmed down. He was right, I shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth.

"So, what's going on out here so far?" I asked.

"It's a little strange. None of the Shadows will go to far from the compound. It's like they're guarding something." Danny said darkly, "We know some of the people from this miniverse are being held captive, but it's still a little weird that they didn't come out to meet us."

"Do you think it might have to do with the Shadows getting into the viewer's world?" I asked.

"Uh, I don't know. I hadn't thought of that."

Suddenly a loud buzzing sound filled my ears. A Flyer buzzed dangerously close to the gondola.

"Sounds like we're in enemy territory now." Danny said, "Lets see if that shot really was just luck."

"Umm, ok." I knocked an arrow and, once again, before I knew what I was doing, I'd shot one shadow straight through. It faltered in its flight, but kept going. Danny fired an ectobeam at it and the shadow disintegrated.

"Nice shot." I commented.

"You too. I guess that wasn't a just a fluke last time."

"I guess not. It's kind of freaking me out."

We didn't have much more time to discuss it after that, because we were too busy fighting off the Flyers buzzing around us. Once the other gondola got to the island, the bug-like Shadows seemed to loose interest in them and came after us. Each time one came close my hands would let an arrow fly without my brain telling them too. We couldn't have reached the shore soon enough.

"Which way do you think the others went?" I asked as Danny and I jumped out. I shot down a Pouncer that had been waiting for us.

"I don't know, probably to where the prisoners are being held." Danny reasoned, "Got any ideas of where that might be?"

"Hello! The whole place is a prison compound! They could be anywhere!" I exclaimed.

Just then we heard yelling above us.

"Stop the prisoners from escaping!" a Pouncer the size of a truck growled loudly. A bunch of characters form Avatar, led by Toph, were being surrounded by Shadows. But just behind them, sneaking down a ladder, were Sokka and Suki!

I wasn't the only one who had spotted them. A small-ish (though not as small as the one in the simulator) Pouncer was hiding in the shadows for them. Quickly, I knocked an arrow, and for some reason this time I knew I was aiming. I fired away, and the Pouncer shrieked. Sokka looked down and, now that he'd seen it, threw his boomerang at it. The Shadow dissolved.

"Wow, nice job!" Danny congratulated me. I smiled. If Suki got away, Sokka probably wouldn't be in such a grouchy mood.

Danny and I fought our way through some more Shadows, but they stuck to the tops of the wall and entrances. It definitely seemed like they were guarding the place. Luckily, I was with Danny, and we didn't need a door to get inside.

"Do you have any idea where we are?" Danny asked me. He seemed to think that since I watched Avatar I would know everything about the place. How was I going to break it to him that this place had only been in two episodes?

"No." I replied. "But if those things are guarding this place so well, there must be something important in here."

We wandered around; looking in the occasional room, not finding much, until we accidentally stumbled into the prison yard. That, unfortunately, was where we ran into the Crawlers. Lots of Crawlers. I'm talking about fifty Crawlers all in one courtyard.

"Um… Wrong room!" I said quickly and tried to back out, but the door slammed shut behind us. The pouncers closed in around us. I knocked an arrow, and Danny's hands started glowing, but we both knew that staying to fight was basically suicide. I spotted a door on the other side of the courtyard.

"Head for the door!" I shouted, and then ran headlong into the crowd of Crawlers. They were huge, black, and shaped like tanks. It wasn't easy, but I could squeeze between them if I was fast. They all tried firing at me, but I kept down, and they ended up blasting each other. I wondered if Danny was getting through the crowd. I didn't have time to look back, if I stopped for a second the Crawlers would squish between them. The door was getting close! Just then a net fell over me.

"Agh!" I shouted. Apparently a Crawler had shot it over me. I quickly tried to find the bottom of the net, but before I could a Pouncer came out of nowhere and picked the net up.

"Put me down!" I said with false bravado. The pouncer growled fiercely. "Please?" I added. It carried me up some stairs and into a large room.

The room was dark, but I could see a guy sitting on a sort of throne at the end. I wondered it if was the warden. But that couldn't be right, the Shadows didn't work with villains. Did they?

As I got closer I saw that the guy had sandy brown hair, so it defiantly wasn't the warden. Now that I thought about it, I realized I couldn't think of a single character from Avatar with that color of hair.

"You were right, they did bring a viewer." The Pouncer carrying me growled.

"Let her out, the doors are locked." The guy said. He looked like he was in his thirties… and he wasn't a cartoon!

The Pouncer dumped me unceremoniously on the floor. I found my way out of the net and stood up. The first thing I said to the guy was: "You're not from here, are you?"

He gave a creepy chuckle. "No, I am not. And neither are you. I am from California. Where are you from?" He asked.

"I'm not telling you, you stalker!" I shouted. Like I said, I can be paranoid.

He chuckled again. Man, that was a creepy chuckle. "Are you wondering what I'm doing here."

"Well, _duh!_" I exclaimed.

"You're not being very polite." The guy said dryly.

"Yeah, I usually don't take kindly to being _kidnapped!_" I said sarcastically.

The guy rolled his eyes. "Whatever. What I was getting at is, I'm a viewer like you. I got stuck here and now I want a way back. If you help me we can both have that."

"Uh, I've already got a way back. I just want to help my friends out first." I said.

The guy looked at me blankly. He obviously hadn't expected that. "You could go home right now?" He asked apprehensively.

"Well, I'd have to get Jimmy to work that portal of his, back at camp, but I _do_ have a way back."

He smirked. "I see there's no fooling you. I'd rather stay here for now too. You see, when I first came here I found that I could control the shadows. If I asked them to do something, they would do it. I liked being in charge, so I decided I'd be in charge of one of the cartoon worlds they told me about. And then I thought: 'Hey, why just one, why not all of them?' And so that's what I'm doing. And once I have taken over all these worlds I will return to the viewer's world and get revenge for when I got fired!"

I was silent for a while, but I was definitely thinking this guy was a _psycho_!

"Oooo-kaaaaaay Mr. Loopy Louie, I'll just be going now…" I finally said.

"How did you know my name was Louie?" Louie asked in amazement. I pulled out my bow and shot the Pouncer before it could stop me. It dissolved into smoke, and I ran for the door. Then I remembered that the crazy guy had said the doors were locked.

"Oh man, now what do I do?" I groaned to myself and thumped my head against the door. The door thumped back. Hard. I realized what was going on about two seconds before the door was kicked in.

"Let her go!" Jimmy yelled as he, Timmy, and Danny charged in at Louie.

"Um, guys, I'm over here." I said as they ran past me.

"Oh." Timmy said, "Well then let's get out of here!"

"Hold on, who's that?" Jimmy pointed at the guy who was apparently named Louie.

"I am the master of the Shadows! Are you here to surrender?" He asked.

"Um, no." Danny said. "We're here for the girl."

Louie shrugged. "You can have her, she won't join me. _For now_." He grinned evilly, and then quickly ran through a hidden door behind his throne.

"Who was that?" Jimmy asked me, "What does he mean by 'master of the Shadows'?"

"I don't know. All I know is that the guy has definitely lost his marbles."

"Well, now that we know you're safe, I think we should get out of here!" Timmy said urgently, "You do realize that we've got about five minuets to get out of here before Aang, Katara, and all the waterbenders we've freed flood this place to wash out the Shadows!"

"I think we should follow the guy!" I said, "He's the one making the shadows invade your worlds, we should find out what he's up to!"

"She's right." Jimmy agreed. (Wait, Jimmy _agreed?_ With _Me?_) "This is out best chance to find out how the Shadows got into the viewers' world."

"We haven't got time!" Danny pointed out, "In less than five minuets this place is going to be underwater. Boiling hot water."

I groaned, but I knew he was right. "Ok, let's scram. I assume you have some sort of quick getaway."

"Sure do!" Wanda _poofed_ up next to Timmy. "Just say the word sweetie."

"I wish we were back with the others at the gondola station!" The buck-toothed kid said.

In a cloud of multi-colored smoke I was back where I had first showed up in this mini-verse. Katara was waiting there for us.

"Is it all clear?" She asked.

"Everyone's accounted for." Jimmy confirmed.

Katara ran to the edge of the cliff overlooking the giant hot spring and signaled to the other benders stationed around the lake. They all raised their arms in unison and giant waves washed over the prison compound on the island. Smoke was rising, but I couldn't be sure if it was from the Shadows dissolving or things catching on fire from the heat. Probably both.

"I sure hope you got all the people out of there." I said to Jimmy.

"We did. The plan all along was to find the Shadow's stronghold, clear out all the people, and wash out the shadows. We combed through the whole structure at least three times."

"Do you think that Louie guy was in there?"

Jimmy shook his head. "I just checked the portal sensors, and it looks like Louie escaped."

**Author's Note: I know you want to kill me for a cliffie like that when updates are so unreliable, but I have to end the chapter _somewhere._**


	9. Five and Two Make

**Author's Note: I haven't updated this story in 5 months! Bad Author, very bad Author! *Beat myself with PVC pipe*. But on the bright side: School is out! Let me say that again in all caps. SCHOOL IS OUT! ! ! And now I am going to spend at least one hour working on a story every weekday. Hopefully _that_ will help me finally finish my two last stories. Yes, after this and A Fairy Phantom Crossover: Two Much of a Good Thing are finished, I'm not going to update anymore stories until I finish the rough draft. I've got a few in notebooks, but I truly don't think I'll finish them before I have to go to college :( . But enough sad stuff, I'm sure you want to read the next chapter.**

**9: Five and Two Make…**

Later that day, after we got back, I started to take down my tent. After freeing their friends, the Avatar gang had decided to stay and help track down the rest of the Shadows left in their mini-verse, and help get things back to normal. That could take them anywhere from days to weeks, and my tent felt like it was in a ghost town without people tending the fire or running around doing some sort of job. So I decided I was going to move my tent over by Manny and Frida's tent circle. I was just trying to fold the tent up so I could carry it when Jimmy walked up behind me.

"Need a hand?" He asked.

"No." I said simply. I still wasn't too happy with him about trying to make me stay behind, although the fact that he had agreed with me back at the Boiling Rock had made me less mad.

"Umm… I wanted to tell you that I've… well, I heard about how you helped save the gondola and the escape party, and… uh… We probably wouldn't have found that 'Louie' man if you hadn't been captured, and… well… what I'm trying to say is—"

"Holey cow, are you actually apologizing to me? In person?" I asked incredulously, looking up from my tent.

"What? Who—I don't know what you're talking—"

"I watch your show, remember? You hardly _ever_ apologize to _anyone_, much less a _girl_." I thought for a moment, "You're not being put up to this, are you?"

"Who said I was apologizing? I—I'm just saying that you've shown yourself to be a valuable member of the resistance and I've decided that you can come on future missions, if you want to." Jimmy stammered, looking a little flustered.

"Uh-hu. Sure." I said, picking up the tent, "Veiled apology accepted, although I still think your sort of an arrogant jerk."

Jimmy frowned.

"In an entertaining sort of way." I added, "Now come and help me carry this over by Frida's tent."

"I thought you didn't want my help." Jimmy reminded me.

"I didn't, before you apologized."

He didn't protest, so I figured that even if it really hadn't been meant to be one, our conversation had become, essentially, an unspoken apology.

After setting up my tent, I headed to the mess hall for dinner. I was about to sit down next to Jenny and Brad when Jimmy came over.

"I was wondering if you could join us for an important meeting. It's about the man you met at the Boiling Rock." He said solemly.

"Oh." I said, "Sheesh, I was wondering when we were going to get to that. Did you figure something out about him?"

"That's what the meeting's about." Jimmy said impatiently, "Are you coming or not?"

"Yeah, I'm coming!" I said excitedly. "Sorry guys, it looks like I've got to go." I said to Jenny and Brad.

"That's ok," Brad said, "You can come over to our campsite for S'mores later."

"Sounds good, thanks!" I called to them as I ran to follow Jimmy. We ended up, of course, at his HQ, where Danny and Timmy were waiting along with an unexpected visitor.

Zuko.

He was standing moodily against the wall of the shed, which was normal behavior for him. He was wearing a dark red cloak and his hair was down, like after he joined up with Aang towards the end of the series. Needless to say, I started hyperventilating the second I saw him.

"Oh-my-gosh!" I said quickly before clamping my mouth shut. I really didn't want to look like a babbling idiot right now. I took a few deep breaths through my nose to try and calm myself. I had to keep on telling myself that if I did this every time I met a new Nicktoon, I'd get a reputation as a fainting lunatic.

"Sorry about that!" I finally said after I'd gotten over my fangirl spaz. "So, um, are you here to, um, I don't know, give a status report?" I asked Zuko while trying not to grin. Grinning didn't seem right around him.

"No." He said simply, not looking at me, "I have information about the master of Shadows."

Well, that shut me up, because that dude still gave me the creeps.

"Eh-hem," Jimmy cleared his throat, "If we could all go inside…" He gestured to the now open door that Timmy and Danny had already gone through.

"Oh yeah." I said sheepishly.

Inside Jimmy's HQ the five of us sat down around a table.

"I've asked you all to meet here because it appears that the Shadows have not been acting on their own. Zuko sought me out right before we left the Boiling Rock and told me he'd learned some things about the master of Shadows, whose real name appears to be Louie, while imprisoned on the island." Jimmy explained.

Everyone looked at Zuko. He stood up and began his tale.

"After the last Shadow attack drove out the resistance they rounded up anyone who they thought might be a problem. I was captured, along with Suki and most of the others, but my Uncle escaped with some."

I found myself smiling again. I couldn't help it, Iroh is just so awesome!

"Not long after the Shadows made their base at the Boiling Rock," Zuko continued, "a man showed up who called himself the master of Shadows. He tried to persuade a lot of the prisoners to join him, including me. He bragged that he could control the shadows and with their power he'd rule over every world he came across. He said that anyone who joined him would be given their own land to rule."

Timmy rolled his eyes. "Tch, sounds like regular villain behavior to me. Brag about how perfect the plan is and then ask for help in exchange for power. If I'd been there I would've said, 'Hey, if your Shadows are so powerful, why're you asking _me_ for help?"

Zuko's expression changed to that 'almost-smile' he has sometimes. "That's basically what I told him. He stopped coming around to ask me for a while after that."

I didn't want to be rude, but I couldn't help but think that we'd heard all this before. This Louie guy already spilled to me that he could control shadows, and the fact that he was a viewer. When was this going to get to the new information?

Almost like he could read my mind, Zuko got to it right then. "I didn't expect him to come back after that, but just yesterday, that's what he did. I think he wanted someone to gloat to. He bragged that he was going to go and capture everyone that had gotten away with Uncle, and after that he was going to collect the last keys he needed to break into the home of every viewer." The fire bender reached into his cloak and pulled out an arrow. "That's when he showed me this." The arrowhead was made of green crystal and the shaft was aqua-blue. The fletching was red and white. The symbols of the four nations were clearly marked around the end of the shaft.

"Nice." I commented on the craftsmanship, "And he just gave it to you?"

"No, I went back and found it after the prison drained out."

Everyone around the table gasped. "Shouldn't it be burned to a crisp from the water?" Danny asked.

"You're right," Jimmy agreed, "It _should_ be burned, but it's in perfect condition. This is no ordinary arrow."

"It's gotta be a key." I figured.

"What?" Timmy asked.

"Well, Louie was talking about keys he needed to get to break into every home in the viewer's world, whatever that means, and then he shows Zuko a fancy arrow that survives being dunked in boiling hot water. What else could it be?" I asked

"He didn't come right out and say it, but the master of Shadows hinted that it was a key." Zuko confirmed.

"I think I know what he means by breaking into the home of every viewer." Jimmy announced, "It's really quite obvious. He's going to try and get himself into a show."

"Can he do that?" I asked, "I mean, I assume that all this stuff happening isn't showing up on new episodes of the Fairly Odd Parents."

"No, it doesn't work like that." Jimmy assured me, "But he seems to think he's found some way to do it. I'd guess it has something to do with these keys. Zuko, did Louie say how many keys he had left to find?"

Zuko shook his head, "All he said was that he was going to collect the last keys. But I think he mentioned that he'd already collected five."

"Alright," Jimmy started pacing, "He said 'keys', plural, so it's more than one, but he also said last, so I'd guess that there are fewer than four left…"

Timmy gulped, "How about two?"

"Um, sure, that's less than four." Danny reasoned, "But what's so significant about two?"

"Because that's the number of home worlds that haven't been completely over-run by Shadows. And five is the number of home worlds that have!" Timmy exclaimed.

I did a double take. "There are only two worlds that the resistance comes from left?" I asked incredulously. I could have sworn there were more!

"Leaping Leptons," Jimmy exclaimed, "Turner's right! Manny and Spongebob are the only members of the resistance whose home worlds haven't been blocked out!"

"I bet this Louie dude has been finding keys in all our home mini-verses!" Danny guessed.

Jimmy ran over to his computer in a flash and pulled up what looked like a giant, multi-level map. It had a flashing red light in the bottom-left corner.

"I'm afraid our theory's right. A Shadow portal has opened in Miracle City!"

**Cliffhanger! But I'll update faster! THIS I SWEAR!**


	10. Some Folks have Strange Tastes

**Author's Note: My parents finally collapsed and bought a new keyboard, after several days of my brothers and my sisters fighting over the laptop. Here's a new chapter before I leave for girls camp next week. I'll try to get a new chapter of Two Much of a Good Thing up as well, but I'm not making any promises. Also, forgive me if my Spanish is off, I've only been taking the class for two years, and I haven't been in school for two months.**

**10: Some Folks have Weird Tastes**

"_What!_" Manny shouted when I broke the news to him. With a flash of green fire and a tiger's roar, he turned into El Tigre.

"Get that portal open, Neutron! We leave immediately!" Tigre exclaimed.

"Hold on, Manny, we've got to think this through first—" Jimmy tried to calm him down.

"Hello! Shadows are invading our hometown! What more thinking does that take?" Frida asked.

"He's got a point, Manny, every other time we've charged in guns ablazin', the Shadows have pushed us right out." Danny said.

Tigre moaned in frustration and threw his hands up in the air. "So what do you want me to do? Just _sit_ here while my hometown is being raided?"

"Just for a few minuets while we figure out a strategy!" I insisted.

"Yeah, like coming up with a strategy only takes a few minuets." Timmy muttered.

Jimmy elbowed him. "Turner, that's not helping."

"Hey! I have an idea!" Spongebob raised his hand.

"What?" everyone asked the sponge.

"You can send some people to keep the Shadows busy while the rest of us stay here and think of a plan!"

Everyone was silent for a few seconds, until Jimmy spoke. "A reconnaissance mission! That's brilliant!"

"Why thank you!" Spongebob said proudly. "What's a recognizance?"

"Alright then." Jimmy decided. "I need volunteers for the recon team."

"Count us in!" Manny and Frida stepped forward.

"I got left behind last time, so I'm going first on this one!" I insisted. Jimmy looked like he might protest, but I fixed him with an angry glare and he shut his mouth.

"Hey, since it was Spongebob's idea, shouldn't he go?" Danny asked.

"I'm ready… for action!" Spongebob exclaimed, striking a dramatic pose on top of a table. Everyone stopped talking while a cricket chirped somewhere nearby. Spongebob giggled nervously and stepped down.

"Ok." I said, "And that means Danny has to go since he volun-told Spongebob."

"What?" Danny asked incredulously.

"Oh, you've never heard of the rule of volun-told?" I asked. "If you say someone else should do it, you automatically volunteer yourself."

Danny sighed, "Fine. I was going to go anyway…"

"I'll go with y'all!" Sandy Cheeks stepped out of the crowd. I'd seen her from a distance, but I hadn't had a chance to talk to her before now. I'd just been too busy.

"Sweet!" I pumped my fist into the air. "This is going to be awesome!"

I noticed Jimmy face-palm out of the corner of my eye.

"I mean, this is going to be dangerous, but I'm totally ready!" I restated.

"Six people sounds like a good number for the recon mission." Jimmy said, "Unless there's anyone else who wants to go." No one stepped forward. The boy genius waited a little longer like he wanted more people to volunteer, but the crowd remained quiet.

"Uh, Neutron, Miracle City isn't getting any safer here!" Frida finally reminded him, snapping her fingers in front of his face.

"Oh, of course." He led us to the portal behind his shed. After he got it running, he handed us each a metal walkie-talkie. "These are to keep in touch with HQ while you're in the field. Don't let the enemy get a hold of them or else they'll be able to trace the signal straight back to us." He smiled, "And be careful not to get caught!"

"What, and miss out on another conversation with Loopy Louie?" I asked sarcastically, "Why shouldn't we?"

I followed my group into the portal and left the Nicktoons Universal Plain behind.

At first glance, Miracle City looked the same as it always did; a spicy cesspool of crime and villainy. Lots of looting and mugging going on. But a closer look revealed that it wasn't the usual villains doing the looting and mugging. It was the Shadows.

"Ok, we're here. So now what do we do?" Danny asked.

"I suggest we look for wherever Loopy Louie is hiding out." I said. "We don't want him to get another key."

"We also need to look for my family!" Manny reminded us.

"And mine!" Frida added.

"Maybe your folks can help us find this Louie fellah." Sandy suggested.

"Sounds like a plan to me." I agreed, "Ok Manny, where should we start looking?"

"Uh…" Manny thought for a moment. While he was thinking a shadow was blasted out of the top of a far off building and landed not to far from us. "Probably over there." He pointed to the building.

Our recon team ran through the streets of Miracle City, battling the shadows that got in our way. While we were running down an alley I noticed something. Lots of people were running around screaming, and they were all screaming in Spanish! I silently wished I had worked harder at memorizing my vocabulary in my Spanish class.

"Hey Manny," I called to my friend, "what are all these people screaming about? All I can make out are the words 'Soccoro!' which is screaming for help, and 'queso' which I _thought_ meant cheese…"

Manny stopped running for a second and listened to all the people running through the alley. I noticed that they were running in the opposite direction. I had a very bad feeling about this.

"Oh no! They're saying the cheese factory is going to explode!" El Tigre cried.

We all froze in our tracks. "Heheh…" Spongebob giggled, "And how far away is this cheese factory?"

"Uh, at the end of this alley." Frida answered.

We all exchanged glances. "Run!" we all shouted at once. Unfortunately we didn't get far before there was a _huge_ explosion. The ground shook, and a second later a wall of melted cheese rammed into us. I'd guess I was carried on that wave of cheese about two blocks before someone grabbed me. Sandy had used her lasso to grab a nearby apartment building and climb onto the roof. Then she'd roped me.

"Thanks!" I gasped out as I tried to catch my breath.

"No problem!" Sandy replied, "Now stand back while I rope in Spongebob. He-yah!"

I couldn't imagine how she was going to find a yellow sponge in a flood of yellow cheese, but sure enough, a few seconds later Spongebob was sitting next to me on the top of the apartment building.

"What about the others?" I asked Sandy as I tried to wipe the sticky yellow goo off of me. "Did you see them in the flood?"

"I haven't seen a sign of them, and I'm the best tracker in Bikini Bottom." She replied.

_Since when?_ I thought, but then again, she _had _been able to find Spongebob, who looked like cheese, in a flood of cheese, so I didn't question her ability.

It didn't take us long to decide that we should continue on our way to the building where the shadow had been blown away. As I watched the structure, every few minuets another shadow would rocket out of the building like it had been shot out of a cannon.

We were running past the remains of the cheese factory when a whole flotilla of Pouncers jumped out of the ruined structure. I pulled out my arrows while Sandy and Spongebob got into fighting stances. However, instead of attacking us, the shadows surrounded us and then stood still.

"Well, well, well, look who it is!" I heard a familiar voice say. Louie stepped out the remains of the cheese factory holding what at first glance appeared to be a moldy piece of cheese. A closer look showed that it was actually a golden statue shaped like a wedge of cheese and encrusted with orange and green gems so it looked like it was covered in mold.

"Ewww!" Spongebob exclaimed.

"Some folks sure do have strange taste in art." Sandy commented.

Loopy Louie shook his head, "Oh this is more than just abstract treasure. This is a key. It is a key to my future! Once I have all the keys I will break into the home of every viewer, and I will be in the perfect position to get my revenge! All I need-"

"Let me guess." I interrupted his rant. "All you need is one more key, from Bikini Bottom, and then you'll get yourself on TV."

Louie frowned, "How do you know all this stuff? My name, my plan, how are you doing it?"

I shrugged, "Luck and reason."

Louie once again showed his insanity by suddenly laughing. "You're wrong on one point. I need two more keys, since you stole one of mine back at the Boiling Rock."

I knocked an arrow and held it level with Louie's hand, where he held the key. Sandy and Spongebob also got ready to strike.

"Louie, I suggest that if you want to keep the use of your hand, that you drop the cheese."

The master of Shadows only laughed manically while the Pouncers that had surrounded us charged in to attack. Luckily, before they had moved more than a few inches, I shot my arrow. It pushed the key right out of Louie's hand.

"OW!" Louie shouted, followed by several words that I don't feel the need to repeat. I had to fight of several shadows after that, but Spongebob crawled through the melee to where Louie had dropped the key.

"I got it!" the sponge shouted for joy.

"Great, now send a message to Neutron so he can send someone to pick it up!" I yelled back.

Spongebob pulled out his communicator, but before he could make a call, one of the Pouncers leaped onto him. The poor guy fought it off, but not before it grabbed his communicator and the key!

"Give that back, you yellow-bellied, liver-sucking sidewinder!" Sandy yelled as she attacked the shadow, but it jumped right over her and landed in front of its master.

"Why thank you! This new toy could be useful!" Louie said as he examined the communicator. All of a sudden a Flyer dropped down and picked him up. Soon the Master of Shadows and all his shadows had gone.

"Uh, guys, didn't Jimmy say that with one of those communicators the enemy could trace the signal straight back to HQ?" I asked.

"Uh-hu." Sandy confirmed.

"This could be a problem." I said.

**Author's note: Yes, I had an explosion in a cheese factory. I figure if El Oso can rob a pink underwear factory in the show, I can have shadows blow up a cheese factory in my story. I haven't seen El Tigre in a long time, so please tell me if anything feels out of character.**


	11. You Gotta be Kidding Me

**Author's Note: Oh dear... how long has it been since my last update? Too long, I know. So much for being a fruitful summer. In my own defense, my family has been very busy lately. And I decided to get a deviantART account. There's probably nothing on there that will interest you folks... yet. Anyhow, IT IS NEARING THE END!**

**11: You Gotta be Kidding Me**

Loopy Louie was gone with the key and one of the communicators. We were stranded in Miracle City with no idea where Danny, Manny, or Frida were. Things looked bad.

"I'd better call Jimmy and warn him." I pulled out my own communicator.

"Ya better call Manny and see if you can find out where the others are too." Sandy advised.

"Ok, after I call HQ…" I pushed the right button.

"Did you beat him?" Was the first thing Jimmy asked me.

"Uh, well, no, not really." I admitted.

"You found the key?" Jimmy asked.

"Well, sort of… but…"

" 'But'?" Jimmy asked.

"We lost it, and a communicator." I said regretfully.

"_WHAT? !_"Neutron yelled so loud that Spongebob and Sandy jumped.

"HEY!" I yelled with equal volume back, "You can yell at _me _or you can _get ready_ for the impending attack. I suggest you call Aang and his friends back from the Four Nations, you're going to need their help. We'll come back as soon as we find Danny, Manny, and Frida. Then you can get on with your rant."

There was a stunned silence on the other end of the line before I hung up. I took a deep breath to calm myself down before calling Manny.

"Hello?" Manny's voice asked over the communicator.

"Manny, thank goodness you're alright!" I sighed with relief. "Are Danny and Frida with you?"

"Oh yeah, we're just kicking butt with my family at the top of that building." Manny replied nonchalantly. "You know, the one that all the Shadows keep getting blasted out of?"

I face-palmed. Of course they were at the place we'd been heading to originally. And by the sound of it he'd found his dad and grandpapi. Well, that was good. Now we just had to get there ourselves.

"We'll be there in a few minuets." I said, "Wait for us."

"We'll try," Manny assured me, "But I think we'll have run out of Shadows to beat up by then."

We reached the building faster than I thought we would, with minimal trouble from the Shadows. They all seemed to be running away from the building in question. I wondered if this was because they were afraid of the Riveras, or if it was because Loopy Louie was planning to blow it up.

When we reached the top floor we found a pretty epic sight. White Pantera, Puma Loco, and El Tigre all fighting at once is awesome enough. Add to the mix Danny Phantom and Frida's dad, Police Chief Suarez, all of them fighting against two of the biggest Fliers I've ever seen, and… well, use your imagination. It's probably more accurate than anything I could write. I hope that by joining the fight, Spongebob, Sandy and I added a little more epicness, but considering that they're a sponge and a squirrel, and I'm a gangly teenager with a bow and arrows, we probably just made it look kinda silly.

Needless to say, with everyone fighting against those two Fliers, they didn't stand a chance. When they had been forcibly removed from the building via Puma Loco's missiles, I pulled Manny, Danny, and Frida aside.

"Guys, I think headquarters is in trouble."

"What makes you think that?" Danny asked.

"I, heheh, kind of lost my communicator to a Shadow." Spongebob giggled nervously.

The others gave him a 'You've gotta be _kidding_ me!' look, but they didn't give him any trouble about it. It wasn't the poor guy's fault, he'd fought hard. Unfortunately, it wasn't hard enough.

"So the Shadows could be swarming in there right now?" Frida asked.

"Yep." I stated, "We've got to go back, and I have a feeling we're going to need all the help we can get. Manny, do you think your dad and grandpa would be willing to help?"

"Sure they would!" Manny assured me.

"Of course we will help!" White Pantera exclaimed when we asked, "But Manny, I want you and Frida to stay here."

"What! Why?" The two protested.

"An mission like this is far, far too dangerous." White Pantera explained.

"But Dad—" Manny tried to argue. His father was about to answer when Puma Loco stepped in.

"Rudolpho, why don't you let your papi handle this one, no?" He leaned in close to Manny, handed him some keys, and whispered, "Here are keys to the car. You and you friend can go do some looting while your papi and I take care of this."

Manny just folded his arms and frowned. Frida was eyeing those keys, but when she saw her friend's expression, she copied it.

I cleared my throat. "Uh, Señor White Pantera, sir?" I asked awkwardly. "I think that, under the circumstances, it would actually be a better idea for them to come with us. You see, back at headquarters there will be lots of people who can fight off the Shadows and keep Manny and Frida safe, but here, with you and Puma Loco gone, there won't be very many people to keep an eye on them. So technically, it'd be safer if they came with us and helped."

"But wouldn't they be in more danger since there will be some many more Shadows there?" Spongebob started to ask, but luckily Sandy stomped on his foot before he got two words in, so it came out like "But wOUCH!"

"Hmm… well, when you put it that way," Rudolpho thought for a few more seconds, "All right, but you must promise me you will be extra careful!"

"Oh, yeah, sure! We can do that! We'll be way careful!" Manny and Frida both assured him at the same time.

Danny used his communicator to create a portal back to the Nicktoons Universal Plane. After zooming past starts through the portal, we landed in the middle of the camp. The first sight that greeted our eyes was an all-out-battle. The first sound that greeted our ears was someone yelling.

"**GET DOWN!**"

**Author's Note: Why do I joy in making cliff hangers when I know updates will be slow? I'm bad with my public that way, I guess.**


	12. What Just Happened?

**Author's Note: Yes, yes I'm still alive. And I AM GOING TO FINISH THIS STORY IF IT KILLS ME! (looks at pile of unfinished English essays) OR MY GRADE! Thank you everyone, for being patient with me. I'll admit, this chapter was really hard to write. I've had some serious writer's block here. I hope it doesn't come off as forced.**

**12: What Just Happened?**

"**GET DOWN!**" someone yelled behind us. We quickly obeyed, just in time to duck under a barrage of lasers. I turned around to see Jenny, Brad, Timmy, and Neutron peaking over a sheet of metal they were using as a sort of shield.

"Oh my gosh! Are you guys ok?" Jenny asked worriedly.

Everyone replied that they were fine. I was going to ask Jimmy exactly why they were shooting at the place where we were supposed to appear, but decided there were more important things to worry about.

"What's the situation here?" Danny asked, "How many Shadows have shown up?"

"At least five-hundred," Jimmy replied, "It's hard to make an accurate estimate when they keep on arriving at irregular intervals."

"That's not the half of it." Timmy added, "Loopy Louie is here too. He's looking for that arrow we found in the Four Nations!"

"The Key…" I said, "He got the Key from Miracle City, and now he only needs the ones from the Boiling Rock and Bikini Bottom to get into the viewers world."

"So where is this arrow now?" White Pantera asked.

"Uh, didn't Zuko have it last?" Brad asked Jimmy.

"I think so." Jimmy replied.

"You _think_ so." I rolled my eyes, "Well that's just _lovely_."

"When was the last time anyone saw Zuko, anyway?" Timmy asked. Everyone remained silent.

"We'd better start lookin' then!" Sandy finally asserted. We all split up pretty randomly. I ended up following Jenny and Brad.

"So… looks like we won't be having s'mores tonight." I commented as we ran past the remains of their camp-site.

"Probably not." Brad agreed.

We fought our way through the Shadows. Jenny was doing most of the work while Brad and I hit the occasional enemy with a well-placed arrow or goop grenade.

We were running past the mess-hall when we spotted flames shooting out from the vicinity of the field.

"Only fire-bending could do that." I pointed out.

"Well, technically it could also be Aang." Jenny reminded me.

"Oh, so they _did_ show up." I stated. Jenny and Brad had already run ahead of me. I dashed to catch up.

Jenny and I had both been right. It was Aang _and_ Zuko. Which, of course, was almost too awesome for me to handle. I squealed out loud. Luckily the battle raging around me was loud enough to drown out most of the noise, but Brad and Jenny still gave me an awkward glance.

It was a good thing both of them were fighting at once, because it looked like all five-hundred of the Shadows Jimmy had estimated were here converged on them. Orchestrating the whole charge was none other than Loopy Louie.

"Surrender the Key!" he screamed maniacally at Zuko, standing far enough away, and with enough Shadows in between him and the benders to not get burned. His attention was conveniently centered on the fight, leaving his flank relatively unprotected.

"Come on." I motioned Jenny and Brad to follow me. We snuck around until we were right behind the Master of Shadows. He hadn't even left Shadows to guard his back! This was too easy. I was about to voice my concern when Brad charged.

"Yeaaah!" the foolish teen cried, "Eat slime, evildoer!"

Luckily for us, Loopy Louie was just incredibly stupid, and he wasn't planning anything. Unluckily, the slime was meant for Shadows, and it didn't really do much to the villain other than irritate him.

"What's the big idea?" Louie fumed. "Can't you see I'm busy?"

While Louie was distracted, Jenny shot a net catapult over him. The fact that he'd been captured didn't seem to register in his brain.

"_Hello_! What part of 'I'm busy' do you kids not understand?"

"Call off your troops, Loopy Louie." I demanded, with an arrow level with his face for persuasion. I couldn't have actually shot him like that, but I figured the bluff was worth a shot.

"Alright, give me the Key then." Loopy Louie replied calmly. This guy really was crazy. He didn't seem to realize we had him cornered.

"Here's a better idea." Jenny pulled him up by his collar, "You call off your troops, leave, and give _us_ the other Keys you took."

"Well that doesn't sound like much of a bargain." Louie laughed manically. "I'll call off the Shadows when I have my Key."

I rolled my eyes. "This isn't getting us anywhere. Let's tie him up somewhere and help the others find the Key. Then we can worry about this creep."

"We can't just leave him here." Brad pointed out, "He might try to escape."

"That net's made of a Titanium-Technetium alloy and tied the same kind of cable knot they use in old suspension bridges." Jenny said, "He's not going anywhere."

We left the Master of Shadows tied up in a net on the ground. Not one of my better ideas.

Without anyone giving orders, the Shadows had scattered away from Aang and Zuko's furious attacks. The two of them stood in the center of a circle of black soot. All the grass around them had been burned and trampled.

"You guys. Were. _Amazing_!" I exclaimed, "I mean, that was way better than anything on the show! Well, maybe not _anything_, but it was better than the _majority_ of the battles in the show, and that's saying something."

"Uh… thanks." Aang said uncertainly.

"Is the Key safe?" Jenny asked Zuko, "Where is it."

"I don't have the Key." Zuko replied, "When the Shadows first appeared, they seemed to know I had it, so I gave it to someone else for safekeeping."

"So… who has it now?" Brad asked.

"Your younger brother."

We all chuckled nervously. "You're kidding, right?" Aang finally asked.

"No, I'm not." Zuko said gravely. I should have known. The Fire Lord does not kid.

You couldn't really blame Zuko. Timmy and Jimmy were both about Tuck's age, and they could hold their own against enemies more terrifying than the Shadows. Why wouldn't the black-haired boy be any different? Someone should have taken more time to introduce Zuko to everyone.

"We've gotta find Tuck!" I finally broke the stunned silence. As soon as the words left my lips, the unluckiest coincidence possible happened.

A Shadow had somehow loosed Loopy Louie from the supposedly inescapable net. At the same time, Tuck just happened to peak out from under the table that served as his hiding place. Unfortunately, a Pouncer just happened to be passing at the same time. It only had to growl at the poor kid to make him drop the arrow.

"Bring that to me!" Loopy Louie commanded the Shadow in a strange voice. I now knew why they called him the Master of Shadows. The Pouncer swept it up and was at its Master's side in one leap.

The villain grinned triumphantly. "I'll be calling off my troops now." He cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted with unnatural volume, "Victory is ours!" The Shadows all turned toward the sound. In a matter of seconds they dissolved into smoke, like they usually did when they were defeated. But this was different. Instead of the smoke dissipating, it all swirled around the Master of Shadows, until he and his minions were gone.

"What just happened?" Tuck asked blankly.

"We were just doomed." I supplied, "That's what happened.

**The funny thing about trying to finish a story it that you have to modify and leave out ideas you had in order to get to the end. That is something I learned in College Writing. See, it isn't all bad.**


	13. That's a Horrible Plan!

**Author's Note: Hey guys, here's my reverse birthday present. Have a happy Halloween! Oh, and I might also finish a four-shot challenge from E350 by the end of the month. Hopefully. This is the second-to-last chapter! Hopefully. Possibly third-to-last. Anyway... So much homework to do. Midterms. Sunday is the only day I have off. Well, enough 'hopefully's**. **Go ahead and read.**

**13: That's a Horrible Plan!**

Questions were flying everywhere. "How did this happen?" "What does this mean?" "How long do you think we have?" Of course, the most prominent question was: "What do we do?"

That question was the subject of the meeting being held in Jimmy's HQ. We'd gathered every main character and informed them of exactly what happened.

"So, our very educated guess is that he's headed for Bikini Bottom." I summarized.

"Oh no!" Spongebob gasped. Everyone else in the room shared looks of concern. After Bikini Bottom fell, what would be next?

"So, we know Louie's going to attack Bikini Bottom? What kind of an advantage does that give us?" Aang asked.

"Not much." Jimmy admitted. "We'll have to come up with something else."

"What else have we got?" Timmy asked incredulously, "We've tried running in full-force and sending a recon team. Neither of them were exactly successful."

"Maybe we need a secret weapon." Jenny suggested.

"Ok then, who's got an idea for a secret weapon?" Danny asked dully. No one offered up any ideas. "That's what I though."

"Maybe we could get everyone from our home worlds to help!" Manny suddenly blurted out.

"I thought of that earlier, but with the Shadow's block, it's hard enough to get our whole group through in two trips." Jimmy explained.

We all sat thinking for a while. Every few minutes someone would give out a half-baked plan that had an obvious hole in it, like the fact that we didn't have access to any more than two and a half dragons. While these ideas were shot down one by one, I thought of all the desperate situations I'd read about in books. How did the heroes usually get out of those? An idea with an obvious drawback popped into my head, but I couldn't get rid of it, so I half-heartedly suggested, "We could wait 'til the last minute."

"What's that mean?" Timmy asked.

"Oh, you know, let him think we've given up, then charge in at the last minute and take all the keys. That sort of thing." I waved my hand in the air casually to show I knew it was too risky.

Surprisingly, a thoughtful look appeared on Jimmy's face. "That might actually work!"

I looked up with a start. "What?"

"It _would_ be unexpected." Danny agreed.

"Guys, you don't seriously think…" I tried to say.

"We could make it a sneak attack! I know a lot of good hiding places in Bikini Bottom!" Spongebob added.

"But we run a big risk of being too late!" I tried to point out.

"And since it's in the ocean, we could wipe out a bunch of the Shadows with waterbending!" Aang reasoned.

"Is anyone even listening to me?" I asked.

"Yeah, he'd never see it coming!" Timmy exclaimed.

"Apparently not." I answered my own question.

"We'll take him this time!" Manny pumped his fist in the air.

"Guys, this is a horrible plan!" I finally shouted.

"But it was your plan." Jimmy pointed out.

"I was just throwing out a random idea that popped into my head!"

"Well, it was a good idea." Jenny assured me.

"Not really. We could be too late, we could be too early, Louie could still have a trap set for us at the last minute, we could be caught before we launch the sneak attack… the list goes on and on!" I explained. "You'd have to be completely crazy to go through with that plan!"

So of course, they went through with it.

"You guys are completely crazy, you know that?" I told Danny as we prepared to leave for Bikini Bottom.

"Are you going to just stand here and complain, or are you actually going to help us?" He asked me dryly.

"Oh, I'm coming. I couldn't let you guys go to your doom without trying to prevent it. Which is why I'm _still trying to talk you all out of it!_" I yelled.

"Don't worry, I've got everything planned out." Jimmy assured me. "When we arrive in Bikini Bottom we'll locate Louie's base of operation and spend a few hours evaluating how close he is to locating the last key and how we can secure the others. Then we'll launch our attack, swipe the keys, and…"

"Run home like the devil is chasing us!" Spongebob finished.

I looked at them blankly for a few seconds. "Yeah. That's foolproof plan, right there."

"It has to be, with Turner involved." Jimmy jibed.

"Hey!" Timmy interjected. "I don't screw up plans nearly as often as _you_ do, Mr. Let's-See-If-I-Can-Figure-Out-How-This-Weapon-Works."

I rolled my eyes and headed back to my tent to get my arrows. This whole conversation had made me _so_ sure of our success, but I couldn't just sit here and let them get beaten to a pulp. I'd find a way to save this plan. I would have to be the secret weapon.

**I might actually finish this before the end of 2010. That'd be nice.**


	14. Very Brave and Very Foolish

**Author's Note: Ok, I'm sorry I didn't update around Thanksgiving like I said I would. I'm also sorry I didn't update before Christmas. Here's a late Christmas present for you: The second-to-last chapter of "I Guess You Had To Be There". And here's the real present: The last chapter is done and I'm uploading it along with this one! It was alot of writing, but I did it. Man, this thing is long. I was originally going to have it all one chapter, but it was nine pages long, so I split it in half. Anyway, enough talk, here's the next chapter.**

**14: Very Brave and Very Foolish**

I was standing in the back of the group as all our fighters waited for Neutron to open the portal, still trying to figure out a way I could save the sorry excuse for a plan I'd come up with. My only thoughts were that I'd have to hang back from the others in case there was a trap. I hoped maybe I could get someone else to come with me, I couldn't do it on my own, but it looked like everyone wanted to follow with the original plan.

I'd spent the last hour trying to get _someone_ to hang back with me, and the portal was now opening for the first group. I tried one last time to persuade someone.

"Hey Cosmo," I turned to the green fairy, "Don't you think it'd be best for a few people to hang back, just in case there's a trap? That way the people who hung back could come and save the first group."

"Uh, I don't know." Cosmo shrugged, "Timmy says we should stick together, but I'm not sure why…"

"Because the _last_ time we split up you _completely forgot_ what you were supposed to be doing and wandered around loudly until you led the Shadows straight to us." Timmy reminded his godfather testily.

"_You_ need to relax." The boy in the pink hat pointed to me, "Louie doesn't know we're coming—"

"That doesn't me he hasn't guessed that we will." I muttered.

"_Since he doesn't know that we're coming_," Timmy restated, "We can get a good hiding spot and watch what he's doing until the time's right to strike."

I sighed. It sounded like a pretty stable plan when he put it like that… but I just had a gut feeling that Loopy Louie knew we'd try and go after him one last time and would plan accordingly.

I didn't have time to argue more. Neutron opened the portal for the last group, and we all entered into the swirling pink circle. I started to panic. How was I supposed to save the plan now? Maybe I could persuade someone to come with me once we got there…

The portal opened up on the small island just above Bikini Bottom. Spongebob was already in the water, and everyone else was already chewing air gum and jumping into the waves. I suddenly wished I'd brought a swim-suit.

As everyone got in I finally called out. "We need a back-up plan! Who's going to hang back with me?"

Everyone turned back and groaned. Apparently I'd already asked everyone this question at least once.

Jimmy stepped forward and tried to explain the situation to me, "The thing is, every time we've split up, things haven't gone very well. Just look at what happened when you got separated in Miracle City."

I rolled my eyes. I wouldn't admit it, but he had a point. I'd made up my mind though. I was going to hang back just in case things went wrong whether I had to do it on my own or not. "Good luck then." I folded my arms and sat down like a seven-year-old throwing a tantrum, "I'll be right here if anything goes wrong."

Everyone stared at me like I was crazy, and a few people even looked like they might try and talk me out of it, but they'd all finally learned that I was stubborn, too stubborn for my own good. They all entered the water.

"We'll call you if we need help." Danny, the last to leave, told me just before he went under. "But if _you_ need help, be sure to call _us_."

I actually giggled, "I'm stubborn, not _stupid_. I'll be sure to do that."

After everyone had left, I found shade under the lone palm tree on the island. I sat around for a while, bored, until something caught my eye. Under the tree was a coconut, already husked, leaving the round ball you'd see in the grocery store. Something was carved into it… it was an image of one of the flower-like clouds from Bikini Bottom!

"That's not normal." I said to myself, "it's got to be a Key! I can't believe I found it!"

"Found what?" A voice asked behind me. I whipped around to see Loopy Louie behind me, and a large motorboat moored on the shore.

"A coconut that's ready to eat." I lied, "I'm hungry."

Louie chuckled darkly, "I'm loopy, not _stupid_. Hand over the Key, girl."

I held it up over my head in a pathetic attempt to keep it out of his reach. "I-I found it first!" How was I going to get to my communicator without giving up the Key to Loopy Louie? I ducked around the tree and tucked the Key under my arm like a football. While I dashed away I stuck my free hand into my pocket and rummaged for my communicator. I had just managed to turn it on, and was trying to call the others, when at least eight Shadows jumped in front of me.

"Oh man…" I stopped in my tracks. The Shadows swarmed me. I tried my best to fight them off, and I think I might have actually gotten one of them, but it wasn't enough. They had me pinned to the ground, and Loopy Louie had the Key in hand.

"Well, today's just my lucky day, isn't it?" Louie cackled, tossing the Key up and down as carelessly as he would a soft-ball. "I capture those rebellious Nicktoons, I find the last Key, I capture _you_…"

"You've _already_ caught the others?" I asked. Wow, that plan went worse than I'd thought it would!

"Oh yes, I'm going to see them now." Louie gave his crazy grin. "And if you join me, I'll let you tag along."

"Why on earth do you WANT me to join you?" I asked incredulously, "You seem pretty confident in your own abilities to pull you through."

"The more the merrier." He replied in a creepy tone. I stuck my tongue out at him. My, I was being mature that day.

Louie shrugged, "Have it your way, then. All I really need is the Key, and I really don't have anything against you, so…" He reached into my pocket and pulled out the air gum Neutron had left me, "I'll just leave you stranded here until I'm done taking over the world through television. Then I might come and take you home." He walked away laughing to his motorboat. When he reached the boat, he snapped his fingers and the Pouncers holding me down leapt up and dashed to the boat.

I was right behind them, determined to follow the villain and save my friends. I wasn't nearly as fast as them, though. By the time I reached the beach where they'd been moored, the motorboat was already too far for me to jump to, and at that speed I'd never catch it. Then my mind seemed to slow time down. They'd forgotten to pull in the mooring line; it was still floating just within my reach. It wouldn't stay there long. I had just seconds to catch it. I lunged.

By some miracle I got a good grip on the line before it was pulled away from the island at a good six knots (about 7 mph on land), dragging me along with it. I'd never gone water-skiing before, let alone _barefoot_ waterskiing, but I _had_ ridden a sled pulled by my grandpa's snow-mobile several times before. Hopefully this wouldn't be too different.

It was different. Unlike the sled, I felt every bump and wave of the water crashing into my whole body, instead of just my rear, and unlike the sled, I was creating a lot more drag in the water, what with my cloths still being on over the swimsuit Wanda had given me. But luckily, it wasn't quite as bad as being dragged through the closing end of the universal portal. All I had to do was hold on tight until Loopy Louie reached his destination.

Thankfully, it wasn't too far. The island I'd just been standing on was still well within sight, and I only had to endure about a minute of being dragged behind the boat. Of course, that same distance would have taken me around twenty minutes to swim. After the boat stopped I just floated on my back trying to recover from the ordeal, and hoping Louie just didn't see me.

Voices finally brought me out of my recovery state. Louie's motorboat was moored to a much larger ship that reminded me of an ocean liner. I followed the line to the motorboat, and then climbed up a ladder to the dock of the ship. I stopped just short of the top to listen.

"Now, don't get me wrong, you've all been worth opponents. You even got a world back from me, that's impressive!" Loopy Louie had everyone tied with ropes and lined up like they were waiting for a firing squad. I'm guessing there was something more to the ropes, because they were black and smoked slightly, like the stuff the Shadows dissolved into. They'd have to be special to bind most of the characters there.

"So, since you've all shown yourselves to be… um, impressive, I'm going to give you the chance to join me!" Louie continued to rave, "It'll be so much easier to control the world through television if I _don't _have to replace you. The kids will be a lot more receptive to familiar faces than new ones, but hey, I can win them over with my own show in time."

"So that's your plan!" Jimmy exclaimed, "You want to brainwash the kids who watch our shows in the viewers' world!"

"Oh, brainwash is a harsh term…" Louie shook his head, "I just want to twist their young impressionable minds for my own nefarious purposes, namely, controlling the world economy."

"Yeah, 'cuz that's a lot less evil." Danny muttered.

"Ok, so, show of hands, who wants to do what the Master of Shadows says and make kids buy all his products?" the crazed villain asked. No one moved.

"Oh, that's right, you all have your hands tied!" he finally realized, "Ok then, just speak up. Anybody?"

I decided this was a good time to make my move. "Hey, Loopy Louie, nobody wants to join you because one: you're evil, and two: your plan stinks! If you replace all the good shows on Nickelodeon with shows that teach kids to be evil, no one will watch the channel, they'll boycott the network!"

Louie whipped around to face me. I'd climbed up the ladder and now had my bow out, an arrow pointing at his face.

"Didn't I just leave you...?" He trailed off and noticed the loose mooring line still attached to his motorboat. "Ahhh." He laughed and turned to the Nicktoons, "Your friend is very brave, but also very foolish."

"Yeah, we know." They all replied.

"Hey!" I exclaimed.

Loopy Louie stepped menacingly towards me. "What are you going to do? You expect me to believe you'd actually shoot me in the face?"

I hate it when they call my bluff. I lowered my aim quite a bit, "No, but I might keep you from having any kids…"

He looked at me incredulously. I lowered my aim a bit more, "I might nail you to the spot."

"Go ahead and try." The villain smirked. Once again, I felt myself shoot without any conscious effort, but before arrow made contact, a huge Pouncer jumped in the way.

"You've played quite enough, viewer!" it rasped at me as it pulled the arrow out, and with a mighty shove it pushed me back into the ocean.

I could barely hear my friends call out for me over my own screams. I had just enough time to see them crowding the railings of the ocean liner to see me fall before I hit the water.


	15. Finally

**Author's Note: Told you guys I'd have it done by New Years!**

**15: Finally**

Before that day, I'd never really swam in the ocean before, and before this, I'd mostly been dragged around by a rope. Now I was out at least nine feet from the nearest boat, and I had nothing to hold onto other than my bow, which wasn't much good. I had to fight against a current and waves much stronger than any lake or river hole I'd ever swam in.

I had to get a hold of myself! It's just choppy water! I've been taking swimming lessons since I was four! I can swim nine feet easy, that's not even a whole lap in the pool! I took a deep breath of air and tried to time my strokes so I went under the waves. It took a while for me to get used to it, but eventually I actually started to move forward with some semblance of speed. All the while my friends were watching me and cheering me on.

The Master of Shadows, however, was a little less encouraging. "Swim all you want, girl. It won't be enough to stop me! The sun is at its zenith, and now I will finally break my way into the televisions of millions of viewers! _Keys, open my door!_"

With his last phrase, the seven keys rose into the air. A pencil with a star on the eraser, a green and black mask, a screwdriver that sparked like a taser, and what looked like a silver CD with serrated edges joined the arrow, wedge of cheese, and coconut I'd already seen. As they spun in a circle, the sky between them became a black and white fuzz of static. But instead of static, I heard a very familiar tune.

_If nautical nonsense be somethin' you wish_

_Then drop on the deck an' flop like a fish!_

That, I guessed, was the door to get on TV.

Loopy Louie called a Flyer down, and it began to carry him up to the door. I watched the keys circle around as he came closer to his goal. I had to time this just perfectly…

I'm really lucky that I had these new super-archery skills, because if I hadn't, I doubt I'd have been able to pull this off while treading water. My arrow shot from the bow and flew right over the Master of Shadows' head.

"Missed me by a mile!" he teased with a maniacal laugh. The arrow continued on and knocked the coconut and the CD out of their orbit, breaking the door's spell.

"You? Yeah." I replied, "What I was actually aiming at, no I didn't."

The keys fell from the sky. Everyone made a mad dash to catch them. Timmy caught the pencil right as it was about to fall in the water. Danny flew up to catch the mask. Tigre used his grappling claw to catch the wedge of cheese as it fell several feet away. Aang caught the falling arrow in a ball of air. Jenny flew up and caught the CD, which had flown off course because of my own arrow.

The coconut, which had also been thrown off course, fell into the ocean a few yards from the boat.

"I got it!" Spongebob yelled as he jumped into the water to claim the prize.

"Oh no you don't, that's _mine_!" Loopy Louie yelled, and he jumped in right after him.

Needless to say, Spongebob was much more adept to swimming in the ocean, and he quickly outdistanced Louie. The villain saw this, and decided to play dirty.

"_Shadows, do my bidding and grab my Key_!" He cried in that same voice as before. Several Flyers took off from the ocean liner and sped toward the key.

"Go Spongebob! Hurry!" I yelled at him. The others cheered him on, but would he be fast enough?

Yes! The yellow sponge grabbed the Key, but there were still at least five Flyers headed straight for him.

Then, slowly, the Key began to emit a white light. It was dim at first, but it grew brighter by the second. All the other keys were doing the same. Soon we all had to shield our eyes. I heard a sort of screeching sound, and then the light finally faded away.

The Shadows were gone.

"Hey… hey, where are my… what did you do to my… How will I take over the world now?" Loopy Louie asked angrily.

"Well, you can have a nice long think about that when we take you back to your home in the viewers' universe," Jimmy told him, "In _jail_!"

"Uh, Jimmy, slight problem with that." I reminded him, "Back in my world he hasn't actually done anything, I don't think."

"We can fix that!" Cosmo held up his wand happily.

"Well…" I said apprehensively. It seemed kinda wrong.

"Hey, those Shadows that got through did some damage, right?" Danny justified, "And it is technically his fault that the Shadows were there in the first place."

I smiled. "Right."

So, after the keys were returned to their respective home mini-verses, the Shadows scattered. Without the Master of Shadows to direct them, Jimmy was certain they wouldn't come back with force again. Things began to go back to normal in everyone's homes. Which meant it was time for me to return to mine.

"Thanks for everything guys." I was trying not to cry. Everyone had come back to the Nicktoon Universal Plane to see me off.

"Hey, we should be thanking _you_!" Jenny put her hand on my shoulder to try and calm me down. "We never would have beaten that Louie guy if you hadn't helped us."

"We _all_ owe you our thanks." Sokka said with his arm around Suki.

"_Really_?" I choked out. Man, I needed to leave _now_, before I broke down crying in front of _everyone_. That would not be good. I turned to leave through the portal, but a few more of my new friends were standing there to give me a last good-bye.

"Sorry we tried to ditch you." Manny said. "Good thing it didn't work, hu?"

I giggled in spite of myself. "Yeah, probably."

Next in line was Danny. "It was really his idea." He jerked his thumb at Manny.

"No, really, it's ok. I think." I assured him.

"So, good luck with life in the viewer's world." Timmy smiled. I smiled back.

Finally, it was just Jimmy left, working the controls of the portal.

"I'll admit, I'm glad you showed up to help us." He said simply.

"_What_?" I asked in mock surprise, "You mean _you_, of all people, were _wrong_ about me? Impossible."

Jimmy flinched. "Yes, I was wrong. I'm sorry." He straightened up and looked at me seriously. "Actually, I'm really impressed with how well you did. If we ever need help in the future, can I call on you?"

I grinned. "I look forward to it Jimmy."

He grinned back. "Alright, this portal will take you back to fifteen minutes after you left. I'd put it back sooner, but I don't want you to show up out of nowhere in the middle of the police inspection."

I arched my eyebrows in surprise. Apparently things were going to be very interesting when I got back.

The portal dropped me off behind the dumpster in the same parking lot where I had left. There was police tape everywhere. I quickly got to the other side of it before I got in trouble, and went around to the school's main entrance.

An officer I recognized was talking to my sister, who was holding my cell phone and looking confused.

"There's no sign of her on school grounds. Are you sure she didn't say what she was doing or where she was going?"

"No." My sister replied, and by her tone, I guessed it wasn't the first time, "She just said that whoever attacked Mr. Mason wasn't a person, and that she was going to get to the bottom of whatever was going on. She's stubborn that way."

"We need that video clip to try and figure out what happened!" The officer said sternly, "Now, if you don't hand it over…"

"Hey, I thought I said you had to wait an hour before you checked that clip." I called to my sister to alert them to my presence. "I told you I shouldn't be long."

My sister smiled sheepishly. "I got curious. And besides, when the police showed up and found all the damage outside, I got worried about you."

"I'm fine." I rolled my eyes like I hadn't endangered my life several times in the past fifteen minutes/ week.

Another officer who I didn't recognize came in from the direction of the parking lot. "We've just arrested a man we found trying to sneak off school grounds. He had some evidence on him that we think might be related to the attack on Mr. Mason."

"What kind of evidence?" The first officer asked.

"Well, for one thing, he was wearing a black panther suit that fits the description of 'something big and black'."

"I see. Let's bring him in to the station." The officers left, but not before calling my dad to tell him that I'd been found safe and sound. He said he'd be by to pick us up in a few minutes.

Finally, I was alone with my sister.

"So, why didn't you show the officer my video?" I asked her.

"I didn't think he'd believe it."

"No, he probably wouldn't have." I agreed. "What about you?"

She looked at me blankly for a second before answering. "If it weren't for the fact that I know you could never movie edit that well in three years, let alone three minutes, I probably wouldn't. But there's really no other explanation. You really fight alongside two Nicktoons."

"Oh, I did quite a bit more than that." I assured her. "There's more that happens after the recording, I guess I'll have to tell you by word of mouth. Uh, let's see, where to start? Hmm…"

**THE END**

**Author's Note:**** Man, I am so glad I finally finished this. Not that it wasn't fun to write, but I'm just glad that after TWO FREAKIN' YEARS it's finally done. Actually, it's been two and a half year, because I actually started writing it the summer before I posted it on this site. I've had real writer's block problems with this story. On top of that, it was never really as high on my priority list as any of my other stories. Towards the end I've been spending time that could have been used to finish this... well, I'll admit I used that time to watch old Disney cartoons on YouTube. **

**I'd like to give a big thanks to everyone who's reviewed this story: Luiz4200, Fyrewire (Formerly Liana-Wolfe), ThunderRiver 411, CRAZEDbySUGAR, Linzerj, and Clockwork Oracle King. You guys rock. I know it's hard to wade through the stuff in the Cartoon Crossovers section and pick out something good, and I'm glad you found this and considered it to be one of those. To you and anyone else who's been reading this: Thank you so much for your patience with me and for sticking with this story to the end. I hope I did an OK job with it. I know there are some loose ends that weren't tied up. Thing is, I was planning on making a sequel. I don't think it'll ever be made, but who knows, maybe someday I'll get around to it. **

**To anyone who reads this in the FUTURE! I hope you enjoyed this story and I'll still appreciate reviews from you too. Go ahead and let me know what you liked and what you didn't like.**

**For those of you who didn't know, yes, this is my last story. I am no longer writing major stories for this website. I'm too busy now that I'm in college. I'll stick around and read and review stuff, of course, and I could never resists a quick challenge from one of my fellow writers like E350, but other than that, I'm done. (Ok, I love writing too much to totally leave. I'll probably start a few one-shot galleries or review stories like everyone else seems to be doing. If I do, expect to see me delving into some of my new/old fandoms... Early nineties Disney cartoons)**

**So, farewell, and thank you so much. Your awesome, last thing I'm gonna say. G'bye.  
**


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